This photograph is a backstage portrait of Barbette, a notorious and popular drag queen, high-wire entertainer, and trapeze artist. Barbette attained great popularity throughout the United States but his greatest fame came in Europe and especially Paris, in the 1920s and 1930s. This photo belongs to a series that Man Ray made on commission for Surrealist author Jean Cocteau, who championed Barbette as a consummate performer. Barbette’s heavily made-up face, wig, and muscular torso suggest a provocative conflation of differently gendered attributes. The harness secured around his waist hints at the daring and athletic spectacle of his show.
