BRASSAÏ (1899-1984)

Brassaï made this photograph most likely in 1934 not far from where he was living at the Hôtel des Terrasses. It was at this same hotel where he rented an extra room to develop and print all the photographs in his landmark book, Paris de Nuit (1932). When Jacques Prévert asked Brassaï at the end of the Second World War to provide sets for his ballet Le Rendez-vous, he selected this image as an ominous setting for the story of love and murder. An enormous enlargement of this photograph, normally titled 'Le Pilier du Métro Corvisart,' served as the backdrop for the second act of the ballet. Brassaï made new photographs that were used in the first and third acts. Joseph Kosma provided the music, Boris Kochno and Roland Petit choreographed. It premiered in June 1945 at the Théâtre Sarah-Bernhardt with a curtain specially designed for the production by Picasso. In his book, Conversations avec Picasso, Brassaï wrote that the shadow of the pillar made him think of the profile of the statues on Easter Island.