Hans Bellmer La Poupée (The Doll)

Hans Bellmer was, with Man Ray, one of the few Surrealists working in photography. His explicit, slightly disturbing imagery was completely unique. Run out of Germany by the Nazi's, living in reduced circumstances, Bellmer's early work is not well documented and precise bibliographic information is difficult to come by. La Poupée was cited by Martin Parr as Bellmer's "magnum opus... undoubtedly a major achievement of the pornographic imagination, arguably an honest, authentic, even moral art" (The Photobook).

A slight under-achiever at the April 2008 auction of photography books at Christies ( lot 41),La Poupée carried an estimate of $60 to $80K but ultimately sold for $73K. That copy was unusual, one of just five copies printed on Japan paper with suite of 10 photographs (this particular example distinguished by an additional photograph bound in at the frontis). Although the Christies' copy was near fine, shabbier copies have a way of slipping below the radar. The author and book dealer Larry McMurtry, in one of his rare mistakes, dramatically underpriced a copy of it, thinking it an exhibition catalog and pricing it at $45.00. There are no copies presently listed online. Secondary books have some value; a copy of the signed/limited 1983 Hans Bellmer, Photographie, a 1983 catalog from a show at the Pompideau Center with a posthumous print, is currently listed at $3,000.

Bellmer's work in photography was mostly confined to the early 1930's; he later turned to etchings and prints (still featuring the same subject matter, however.) He died in 1975.

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