118 - [Henri MICHAUX]. Claude CAHUN. Portrait of Henri Michaux. [1925]. Vintage photograph (17.8 x 12.9 cm), mounted with a mat.

[Henri MICHAUX]. Claude CAHUN. Portrait of Henri Michaux. [1925]. Vintage photograph (17.8 x 12.9 cm), mounted with a mat. A rare photographic portrait of Henri Michaux by Claude Cahun. Autograph inscription signed on the reverse: To my friend Claude Cahun with the warmest regards from Henry Michaux The portrait’s dedication to the photographer is unique—just as their relationship was unique. Lucy Schwob (1894–1954), Marcel Schwob’s niece, began writing in the 1920s under the pseudonym Claude Cahun. She was closely connected to Surrealist circles, particularly to André Breton. “Michaux met her in 1925, through their mutual friend Jacques Viot, to ask her to contribute to the issue of *Le Disque vert* on dreams”—the beginning of a unique friendship between the young woman and the man she nicknamed the ‘cat-snake.’ “Claude Cahun gave Michaux English lessons. They took classes together at Sainte-Anne Hospital. An extraordinary photographer, who mastered the self-portrait in a way that must have impressed Michaux, Cahun also took two of the earliest known photographs of him, including the astonishing double portrait from 1925” (Michaux, Œuvres complètes I, Pléiade, pp. 1267–1268). Cahun used these photographs for one of the photomontages in her book *Aveux non avenus*. The print appeared in a Binoche & Giquello auction catalog (Claude Oterelo, expert) on March 25, 2016, lot 80, described as: “Period silver print by Claude Cahun […]. Unpublished photograph.” Fold marks at the corners. (Leperlier, *L’écart et la métamorphose*, 1992, p. 260.—*Don’t Kiss Me: The Art of Claude Cahun and Marcel Moore*, 2006, p. 172.)