Bronia Perlmutter by Man Ray

Man Ray :: Untitled. Brogna Perlmutter (Bronia Perlmutter), Paris, 1924 | src NGA [National Gallery of Australia]

On December 1924 Francis Picabia asked Bronia to participate in a production, Ciné Sketch, that he and René Clair were putting on after the ballet on New Year’s Eve. Bronia agreed, and she and Marcel Duchamp appeared nude—Duchamp did have a strategically placed fig leaf—in a living tabloid of Lucas Cranach’s Adam and Eve, which Man Ray photographed. This photograph most probably belongs to that series.

Sisters Bronia and Tylia Perlmutter

Sisters Bronia (left) and Tylia Perlmutter, 1922 | Scanned from Billy Klüver and Julie Martin’s Kiki’s Paris | src blogspot

“Bronia, the younger sister, demurely averts her eyes while elder sister Tylia stares almost insolently at the camera, holding a boudoir doll in her hand. […] The sisters were Polish Jews raised in the Netherlands who came to Paris in 1922 when Tylia was 18 and Bronia 16. They both found work modelling for various artists in Montparnasse. Bronia was particularly popular with Nils Dardel, Foujita, and Moïse Kisling (she would often act as hostess for Kisling at luncheons he hosted). She also modelled clothes for designers Paul Poiret and Nicole Grolt.” Quoted from source: tales of a mad cap heiress 

Perlmutter by Abbott, ca. 1926

Berenice Abbott (1898-1991) :: Bronia Perlmutter (Ms. René Clair), ca. 1926 | src Howard Greenberg Gallery
Berenice Abbott (1898-1991) :: Bronia Perlmutter (Madame René Clair), ca. 1926 | src Howard Greenberg Gallery

In December of 1924 Bronia and Tylia Perlmutter were invited by Francis Picabia to attend a performance of the Dadaist ballet Relâche, which included a screening of a short film, Entr’acte, at intermission. Bronia was introduced to the film’s director, René Clair, after the show. Later that same month Picabia asked Bronia to participate in a production, Ciné Sketch, that he and Clair were putting on after the ballet on New Year’s Eve. Bronia agreed, and she and Marcel Duchamp appeared nude—Duchamp did have a strategically placed fig leaf—in a living tabloid of Lucas Cranach’s Adam and Eve, which Man Ray photographed.

A bit part in Clair’s film Le Voyage Imaginaire (1926) followed. The two fell in love and were married in 1926. Quoted from tales of a mad cap heiress (Blogspot)