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CONSTANTIN BR ANCUSI (1876-1957) Self-Portrait, 1935 Vintage silver gelatin print This print is recorded as PH 839(b), four prints are in the collection of the Centre Pompidou, Pairs, PH839(a)-(b) and PH838 (a)-(b) variant 14.6 x 21 cm (5 ¾ x 8 ¼ in) Provenance Private Collection, Paris Literature C. Zervos, C.Brancusi, Paris, Cahiers D'Art, 1957, p. 95 C. Giedion-Welker, Constantin Brancusi, Editions du griffon, Neuchatel, 1958, p. 203 I. Miclea, Brancusi at Tirgu Jiu, Bucharest, 1973, frontispice S. Miller, Constantin Brancusi's Photographs, Artforum, March 1981 S. Geist, Delicatesse de Brancusi, Galerie de France,Paris, 1985, p. 77 F.T. Bach, Constantin Brancusi. Metamorphosen Plastiche Form, Dumont, Cologne, 1987, p. 25, no. 343 F.T. Bach, Brancusi, Photo Reflexion, Editions Du Regard, Paris,1991, p. 111 Bach, Rowell and Temkin, Constantin Brancusi, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris and Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1995, p. 321 Ede enjoyed a privileged relationship with Brâncuși, not only as his friend, admirer and collector but also as advocate and dealer. After Ede bought Poisson d'Or, he lent it in 1936 to The International Surrealist Exhibition at the New Burlington Galleries. When Ede dropped it, Brâncuși undertook the repair, with no admonishment other than to take care: mending it so successfully was a 'miracle … and miracles only happen once'. 1 Brâncuși's Christmas letter in 1933, which featured drawings of The Kiss, referred to photographs sent to Ede, two of which remain in the Kettle's Yard collection. 2 The first shows Leda (1920), a marble sculpture acquired by the Brooklyn artist, collector and social reformer Katherine S. Dreier, who displayed it in her garden. 3 Although there is no indication that Ede was involved in this sale, he was almost certainly aware of Dreier, since they shared contacts as well as a profound interest in the display of contemporary art in domestic spaces. 4 The second Brâncuși photograph relates to Oiseau dans l'espace (1928): a bronze sculpture whose sale Ede mediated to the American collector and philanthropist Stephen C. Clark. 5 In 1934, Clark donated it anonymously to the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York. 1 Constantin Brâncuși, letter to Ede, 'Dimanche', Kettle's Yard Archive, KY/EDE/1/2, see Laura Freeman, Ways of Life: Jim Ede and the Kettle's Yard Artists, Jonathan Cape, London, 2023, pp. 72–73. Ede and Brâncuși corresponded in French. 2 Constantin Brâncuși, letter to Ede, 22 December 1933, Kettle's Yard Collection CB4. 3 Dreier acquired Leda in 1926, probably directly from Brâncuși, and bequeathed it to the Art Institute of Chicago. 4 See Elizabeth Anne Fisher, 'Kettle's Yard: Anti-Museum: H.S. Ede, modernism and the experience of art', PhD thesis, University of Cambridge, 2018, pp. 166, 170–173. 5 In an annotation to a letter from the Brâncuși scholar Sidney Geist, 11 July 1970, Ede dated the sale to 1930 or 1930, Kettle's Yard Archive, KY/EDE/1/2. 28