Front / Recto

  • Title Jean Crotti's Bust of Duchamp (Portrait de Marcel Duchamp par Jean Crotti)
  • Negative Date 1915–16
  • Print Date 1915–17
  • Medium Gelatin silver print
  • Dimensions Image 9 3/4 × 7 3/4" (24.8 × 19.7 cm)
    Sheet 10 × 8 1/8" (25.4 × 20.6 cm)
  • Place Taken New York
  • Credit Line Thomas Walther Collection. Abbott-Levy Collection funds, by exchange
  • MoMA Accession Number 1711.2001

Back / Verso

  • Mount Type No mount
  • Marks and Inscriptions Signed in red ink on sheet recto, bottom right: J. Crotti/1917. Inscribed in pencil on sheet verso, top left: 493 [underlined]. Stamped in black ink on sheet verso, center: PETER A. JULEY,/PHOTOGRAPHER OF/FINE ARTS, NO. 209 E. 23RD ST., NEW YORK. Inscribed in pencil on sheet verso, bottom right: TW 900403.
  • Provenance The artist; by inheritance to the artist's family [1]; to Galerie Weiller, Paris [2]; purchased by Werner Bokelberg, Hamburg, 1987–89 [3]; purchased by Hans P. Kraus, Jr. Inc., New York, 1990 [4]; purchased by Thomas Walther, April 24, 1990 [5]; purchased by The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 2001.
    [1] Werner Bokelberg, telephone conversation with Simon Bieling, April 6, 2005.
    [2] Bokelberg, telephone conversation with Maria Morris Hambourg, September 2013. Weiller was an art dealer at 5, rue Gît-le-coeur, Paris, who mainly dealt with painting from the 1960s; he was about eighty years old when Bokelberg visited him to buy the photograph.
    [3] Ibid.; and MacGill/Walther 2001(3), p. 9.
    [4] MacGill/Walther 2001(3), p. 9; and Hans P. Kraus, letter to Audrey Sands, September 30, 2013.
    [5] MacGill/Walther 2001(3), p. 9; MacGill/Walther 2000(2), p. 41; Hans P. Kraus, Jr. Inc., invoice no. 000867, April 24, 1990; and Thomas Walther archival no. TW 900403 on sheet verso.

Surface

  • Surface Sheen Glossy
  • Techniques Contact print
    Retouching in negative
  • PTM
    Detail view of the recto of the artwork made using reflectance transformation imaging (RTI) software, which exaggerates subtle surface details and renders the features of the artwork plainly visible. Department of Conservation, MoMA
  • Micro-raking
    Raking-light close-up image, as shot. Area of detail is 6.7 x 6.7 mm. Department of Conservation, MoMA
    Raking-light close-up image, processed. Processing included removal of color, equalization of the histogram, and sharpening, all designed to enhance visual comparison. Department of Conservation, MoMA

Paper Material

  • Format Imperial
  • Weight Single weight
  • Thickness (mm) 0.16
  • UV Fluorescence Recto negative
    Verso negative
  • Fiber Analysis Rag 69%
    Bast 23%
    Softwood bleached sulfite 8%
  • Material Techniques Developing-out paper
  • XRF

    This work was determined to be a gelatin silver print via X-ray fluorescence (XRF) spectrometry.

    The following elements have been positively identified in the work, through XRF readings taken from its recto and verso (or from the mount, where the verso was not accessible):

    • Recto: Al, P, S, Zn, Sr, Ag, Ba, Pb
    • Verso: Al, Si, S, K, Ca, Fe, Zn, Sr, Ba, Pb

    The graphs below show XRF spectra for three areas on the print: two of the recto—from areas of maximum and minimum image density (Dmax and Dmin)—and one of the verso or mount. The background spectrum represents the contribution of the XRF instrument itself. The first graph shows elements identified through the presence of their characteristic peaks in the lower energy range (0 to 8 keV). The second graph shows elements identified through the presence of their characteristic peaks in the higher energy range (8 to 40 keV).

    Areas examined: Recto (Dmax: black; Dmin: green), Verso or Mount (blue), Background (red)
    Elements identified: Al, Si, P, S, K, Ca, Ag, Ba
    Areas examined: Recto (Dmax: black; Dmin: green), Verso or Mount (blue), Background (red)
    Elements identified: Fe, Zn, Sr, Ag, Pb

In Context

Related Images

Jean Crotti. Marcel Duchamp. c. 1950s, inscribed 1915. Pencil on paper, 21 1/2 x 13 1/2" (54.5 x 34.3 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Purchase. © 2014 Jean Crotti/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/ADAGP, Paris

Historical Publications

  • Gregg, Frederick James. “The New Sculpture and the Painter-Sculptors.” Vanity Fair 6, no. 4 (June 1916): 87 (as Example of the new “wire” sculpture: a portrait of Marcel Duchamp by Jean Crotti).

    Variétés 1, no. 5 (1928): insert between pp. 162 and 163 (as Portrait de Marcel Duchamp par Jean Crotti [1917]).

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