Portrait photographique de Colette à la peau de lion

- s.l. (Paris) s.d. (1907), 28,7x20,4cm, une photographie contrecollée sur carton. - Colette, the "nude dancer" in her stage costume Photographic portrait of Colette stretched out on a lion's skin [Paris 1907] | 28,7 x 20,4 cm | one photograph mounted on a board A substantially cropped print bearing the same penciled number on the back of our photograph (11214), is in the Reutlinger archives at the Bibliothèque nationale de France (Album Reutlinger de portraits divers vol. 53, p.3). We have been unable to find any other examples of this photograph in other public collections. A similar photograph belatedly dedicated to Maurice Chevalier went on sale in 2008. A beautiful, sultry shot of Colette probably taken the year of her banned dance show "Rêve d'Égypte" at the Moulin Rouge where she shared the bill - and a scandalous kiss - with her cross-dressing aristocrat lover Missy. "Colette was a nude dancer, which at the time meant that she [.] draped herself in vaporous veils, concealing part of her anatomy under animal skins" (Paula Dumont). Colette had already used animal skins, hugging her figure in this picture, as a sensual costume in Charles Van Lerberghe's Pan, accompanied on stage by Lugné-Poe and Georges Wague. This was the first time anyone had dared to go without a flesh-colored body suit. Justifying her choice, she went on to say: "I want to dance naked if the body suit bothers me and humiliates my plasticity". At the time of this photograph, in 1907, Colette was performing in countless shows, following her debut two years earlier in Nathalie Clifford Barney's Sapphic Salon where Mata Hari also danced. For Colette, dance was synonymous with emancipation in more ways than one - as a means of sustenance and liberation of her body which finally belonged to her after her separation from her abusive husband Willy in 1906. Her undulating, almost gestureless dance was linked by contemporary critics to that of Loïe Fuller and Isadora Duncan; her greatest success remained "La Chair", a risqué mime show she performed two hundred times in Paris and was subsequently produced with a new cast in New York's Manhattan Opera House. It was also in the halls of Parisian dance venues that Colette flaunted herself freely on the arm of her lovers. Her scandalous union with Missy, the virile Marquise de Morny who accompanied her on stage in male costumes, contributed to the fame of her performances. This is probably the rarest photograph of Colette taken by Reutlinger who also photographed her draped in Grecian style or wearing her costume from "Le Rêve d'Égypte". A rare visual testimony to a revolution in dance costume brought about by Colette, a key figure in twentieth-century artistic and literary Paris. [FRENCH VERSION FOLLOWS] | Colette, la « danseuse nue », dans son costume de scène | Rare et grande photographie originale en tirage albuminé d'époque, contrecollée sur carton, représentant Colette languissamment allongée sur une peau de lion et recouverte d'une peau de léopard. Un tirage largement tronqué, portant le même numéro manuscrit figurant au dos de notre photographie ("11214"), est conservé dans le fonds Reutlinger, à la Bibliothèque nationale de France (Album Reutlinger de portraits divers vol. 53, p.3). Nous n'avons pu trouver aucun autre exemplaire de cette photographie dans d'autres collections publiques. Une photographie similaire, dédicacée tardivement à Maurice Chevalier, est passée en vente en 2008. Très beau et sulfureux cliché de Colette, probablement pris l'année de son scandaleux spectacle de danse « Rêve d'Egypte » au Moulin Rouge avec son amante Missy, qu'elle embrasse sur scène. « Colette est danseuse nue, ce qui, à cette époque, signifie qu'elle [.] se drape dans des voiles vaporeux, dissimule une partie de son anatomie sous des peaux de bêtes » (Paula Dumont). Les peaux de bêtes, qui épousent sa silhouette sur ce cliché, lui avaient déjà servi de sensuel costume dans Pan de Charles Van Lerberghe, acco