a group of 4 Marionette Studies, comprising Comic End-Man and Lady, Individual English Marionette, Group of Three, and Meyer Levin's 'Doll,' each signed and dated later by the photographer and the first titled by him in pencil, 3 with the photographer's '75, Bould. Montparnasse, Paris 6e' studio and reproduction rights stamps, and the fourth with a Meyer Levin address stamp, and 3 annotated in unidentified hands in ink, on the reverse, matted, 1929 (4)

The photographer to Meyer Levin, New York

By descent to his son, Mikail

Laurence Miller Gallery, New York

Private Collection

Sandra S. Phillips, 'Marionette Photographs by André Kertész,' Performing Arts Journal, Vol. 7, No. 3 (1983), p. 117 (the print of Meyer Levin's 'Doll')

Another print of Comic End-Man and Lady:

Sarah Greenough, André Kertész (Washington, D. C: National Gallery of Art, 2005, in conjunction with the exhibition), p. ꦜ150

These early photographs, on double-weight paper with a soft surface sheen, are in generally good condition. All have some wear at the edges and corners, and when examined in raking light, the following are visible: light scratches, negligible light scuffs, soft and sharp handling creases that do not appear to break the emulsion. Additional condition notes are as follows: Comic End-Man and Lady - This is titled 'Ligeois' by the photographer in pencil and has extensive annotations in an unidentified hand in ink and reduction notations in pencil. When examined in raking light, there is a horizontal sharp handling crease, that does not appear to break the emulsion, across the top of the image, about one inch from the upper edge. Group of Three - In addition, when examined in raking light, small deposits of indeterminate nature, possibly original retouching, are visible in the lower right quadrant of the print. Meyer Levin's 'The Doll' - This print has tiny chipping at the lower edge, as well as a small sharp handling crease breaking the emulsion and significant paper loss at the upper right corner. When examined in raking light, there is a faint, transparent deposit of indeterminate nature on the print, in the center and lower portion. It has rendered a vaguely pebbled appearance to the surface. According to 'Of Paris and New York,' the photographer's '75, Bould. Montparnasse, Paris 6e' studio stamp (Kertész Paris Stamp #2), was used between 1929 and 1931. These prints were signed and dated later ('3.8.82') by the photographer.
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In 1929, Stefan Lorant, who was editor of the Münchner Illustrierte Presse, asked Kertész to photograph a conference of international puppeteers in Liége.  Sandra Phillips has pointed out that Kertész was deeply interested in folk art, both in his native Hungary and later in Paris, and that his photographs of French folk culture appeared also in Vu and Art et Médicine.  Of the puppet series, Phillips has written, 'These little figures are not only folk art, but artful imitations of human lives.  Though they purport to document folk culture, they also reflect the surrealist fascination with the manikin, the shadow, and the mirror as metaphors of human reality' (Performing Arts Journal, Vol. 7, No. 3, 1983, p. 117-120).

Author Meyer Levin, from whom these photographs originally came, and who would later become known for such novels as Compulsion (1956) and The Settlers (1972), also attended the 1929 Marionette Congress in Liége.  Levin founded the Marionette Studio in Chicago in 1926, where he and collaborators Louis Bunin and Elleanor Lee staged contemporary experimental plays.  In Liége, Levin performed his original marionette play, The Doll, which was inspired by the Hasidic tales that he was translating as a result of several months recently spent on a kibbutz in Palestine. This play made particular use of the notion of divine intervention, with the puppeteer's hands standing in for God.  Levin published essays about the Congress in several publications, including the New York Times (Alisa Solomon, 'The Marionette Theatre of Meyer Levin,' Performing Arts Journal, Vol. 7, No. 3, 1983, pp. 105-6).

Kertész chose to include marionette images, including Comic End-Man and Lady, in his first American exhibit🍸ion in December 1937 at the PM Gallery on West 37th Street.