The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of May 13, 2024

Carousel Horse
1929
(French, 1905–1977)
France, 20th century
gelatin silver print
Image: 22.5 x 16.8 cm (8 7/8 x 6 5/8 in.)
John L. Severance Fund 2007.151
© Ministère de la Culture / Médiathèque du Patrimoine, Dist. RMN
Location: not on view

Description

A number of Surrealists photographed carousels, perhaps because of their innate surrealism: petrified animals are impaled and doomed to travel in the same circle without ever arriving. Parry photographed this horse to illustrate a deluxe version of Banalité (Banality), a book of poems and prose pieces by the Surrealist writer Léon-Paul Fargue. The poet reminisces about a contentious childhood competition in which he and his friends, pretending to be soldiers, won prizes by hooking rings onto lances as they rode. Parry’s empty, immobile horse suggests not the joy of childhood games but instead the losses imposed by the passage of time.
  • The artist, Paris
    (Julien Levy Gallery, New York, NY)
    1977-1979
    (Witkin Gallery, New York, NY)
    1979
    Mark Kelman, New York, NY
    1979-2005
    Gilman Paper Company Collection, New York, NY
    2005-2006
    The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
    Feburary 15, 2006
    (Sotheby's, New York, NY, Feb. 15, 2006, no. 68, sold to Paul Hertzmann)
    (Paul Hertzmann, San Francisco, CA)
    David Raymond [b.1979], New York, NY
    2007-
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Cleveland Museum of Art, Tom E. Hinson, Ian Walker, and Lisa Kurzner. Forbidden Games: Surrealist and Modernist Photography : the David Raymond Collection in the Cleveland Museum of Art. 2014. Reproduced: p. 58; mentioned p. 96; reproduced and mentioned: p. 230.
  • Forbidden Games: Surrealist and Modernist Photography. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 19, 2014-January 11, 2015).
    The Julien Levy Collection. Witkin Gallery (October 12-November 12, 1977).
    Modern European Photography. Julien Levy Gallery (February 20-March 11, 1932).
    Surréalisme. Julien Levy Gallery (January 9-29, 1932).
  • {{cite web|title=Carousel Horse|url=false|author=Roger Parry|year=1929|access-date=13 May 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2007.151