Fano Messan (18 February 1902 – 11 February 1998) was a French actress, sculptor, painter and model known for her collaboration with artists such as Luís Buñuel,

Salvador Dalí Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dalí i Domènech, Marquess of Dalí of Púbol (11 May 190423 January 1989), known as Salvador Dalí ( ; ; ), was a Spanish Surrealism, surrealist artist renowned for his technical skill, precise draftsmanship, ...

Man Ray Man Ray (born Emmanuel Radnitzky; August 27, 1890 – November 18, 1976) was an American naturalized French visual artist who spent most of his career in Paris. He was a significant contributor to the Dada and Surrealism, Surrealist movements, ...

Kees Van Dongen Cornelis Theodorus Maria "Kees" van Dongen (26 January 1877 – 28 May 1968) was a Dutch-French painter who was one of the leading Fauves. Van Dongen's early work was influenced by the Hague School and symbolism and it evolved gradually into a ...

and for her participation in the Parisian cultural scene of late 20's. She is also famous for her

androgyny Androgyny is the possession of both masculine and feminine characteristics. Androgyny may be expressed with regard to Sex, biological sex or gender expression. When ''androgyny'' refers to mixed biological sex characteristics in humans, it oft ...

Biography

Fano was born in

Tarbes Tarbes (; Gascon language, Gascon: ''Tarba'') is a Communes of France, commune in the Hautes-Pyrénées Departments of France, department in the Occitania (administrative region), Occitanie Regions of France, region of southwestern France. It is ...

, Hautes-Pyrénées, France, in 1902. By the age of 16 she left the ''École supérieure des beaux-arts de

Toulouse Toulouse (, ; ; ) is a city in southern France, the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Haute-Garonne department and of the Occitania (administrative region), Occitania region. The city is on the banks of the Garonne, River Garonne, from ...

'' (known from 2011 onwards as the ''isdaT – institut supérieur des arts et du design de Toulouse'') to try her luck as a sculptor in Paris. Women were not welcome at the sculpture workshops so she did her apprenticeship by pretending to be a man, especially in the studio of Jan Martel. Messan quickly became a familiar figure throughout the

nude Nudity is the state of being in which a human is without clothing. While estimates vary, for the first 90,000 years of pre-history, anatomically modern humans were naked, having lost their body hair, living in hospitable climates, and no ...

schools, art galleries and bohemian

bistro A bistro or bistrot (), in its original Parisian form, is a small restaurant serving moderately priced, simple meals in a modest setting. In more recent years, the term has become used by restaurants considered, by some, to be pretentious. Style ...

s of Paris. Dressed as a man, with a very short haircut and a striking beauty, Fano honed her sculpture skills while leaving a mark on the works of the greatest artists of

Montparnasse Montparnasse () is an area in the south of Paris, France, on the left bank of the river Seine, centred at the crossroads of the Boulevard du Montparnasse and the Rue de Rennes, between the Rue de Rennes and boulevard Raspail. It is split betwee ...

In 1924 she was invited to exhibit her sculptures in Chicago, United States. The

Chicago Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is an American daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Founded in 1847, it was formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper", a slogan from which its once integrated WGN (AM), WGN radio and ...

journalist, Lorimer Hammond, even wrote an article entitled "''The Latin Quarter has fun trying to determine the sex of Fano Messan''", in which it announces the sculptor's exhibition. The next year she showed her work at the Salon d’Automne, held on the

Grand Palais The (; ), commonly known as the , is a historic site, exhibition hall and museum complex located in the 8th arrondissement of Paris between the Champs-Élysées and the Seine, France. Construction of the began in 1897 following the demolitio ...

. One of the most famous images of Messan was taken during that exhibition: Fano, in suit and tie, poses next to one of her "l'Androgyne" sculptures. In the independent newspaper ''Le Réveil du Nord'' she is presented as "the youngest sculptor in the world". Fano Messan's works are imbued with sensitivity without artifice, with simple and harmonious lines. She also tames wood, stone, ivory or glass to bring her favorite subjects to life. The decorations for the Grand Cercle Casino of

Aix-les-Bains Aix-les-Bains (, ; ; ), known locally and simply as Aix, is a Communes of France, commune in the southeastern French Departments of France, department of Savoie.Bal Tabarin, nudes like "l'Androgyne" series presented at the Salon of 1925, animals or figures such as those of

Valéry Larbaud Valery Larbaud (29 August 1881 – 2 February 1957) was a French writer and poet. Life He was born in Vichy, the only child of a pharmacist Nicolas Larbaud and Isabelle Bureau des Étivaux. His father died when he was 8, and he was brought up ...

or Kees van Dongen who painted her portrait (''"Le garçonne, Fano Messan"'') in exchange for the bust that she made of him in 1929, the year of his French

naturalization Naturalization (or naturalisation) is the legal act or process by which a non-national of a country acquires the nationality of that country after birth. The definition of naturalization by the International Organization for Migration of the ...

. This portrait (which remained with Messan's family at least until 2008) shows a fragile and determined Fano, her gaze deep and distant, the slightly ajar bright red mouth defying time. The orange, green and red colors, so frequent in van Dongen work, doesn't prevent Fano's eyes from dominating the composition of the painting while contrasting with the white of the blouse. The photographin portraits of Messan taken by Man Ray (like the one taken in 1928 and acquired by the Centre Pompidou in 1994) share this characteristics of the model. Luis Buñuel chose her to play "the androgynous girl" in the short film ''

Un Chien Andalou (, ''An Andalusian Dog'') is a 1929 French silent short film directed, produced and edited by Luis Buñuel, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Salvador Dalí. Buñuel's first film, it was initially released in a limited capacity at Studio ...

'' (1929) after watching her play a telephone operator on 1928's feature film

L'Argent ("Money") is the eighteenth novel in the '' Rougon-Macquart'' series by Émile Zola. It was serialized in the periodical '' Gil Blas'' beginning in November 1890 before being published in novel form by Charpentier et Fasquelle in March 1891. T ...

, based on

Émile Zola Émile Édouard Charles Antoine Zola (, ; ; 2 April 184029 September 1902) was a French novelist, journalist, playwright, the best-known practitioner of the literary school of Naturalism (literature), naturalism, and an important contributor to ...

's homonymous romance. Buñuel's film was written with his then-friend Salvador Dalí, and presented a series of tenuously related scenes. Messan plays an androgynous young woman, with bobbed hair and dressed in rather masculine attire. She pokes at a severed human hand with her cane while surrounded by a large crowd held back by policemen. The crowd clears when the policeman places the hand in a striped box and gives it to the young woman. The androgynous young woman contemplates something happily while standing in the middle of the now busy street clutching the box. She is then run over by a car and a few bystanders gather around her. A young man seems to take sadistic pleasure in the androgynous young woman's danger and subsequent death, and as he gestures at the shocked young woman in the room with him, he leers at her and gropes her breasts. The first screening of ''Un Chien Andalou'' took place at Studio des Ursulines, with an audience of '' le tout-Paris''. Notable attendees of the première included

Pablo Picasso Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, Ceramic art, ceramicist, and Scenic ...

Le Corbusier Charles-Édouard Jeanneret (6 October 188727 August 1965), known as Le Corbusier ( , ; ), was a Swiss-French architectural designer, painter, urban planner and writer, who was one of the pioneers of what is now regarded as modern architecture ...

Jean Cocteau Jean Maurice Eugène Clément Cocteau ( , ; ; 5 July 1889 11 October 1963) was a French poet, playwright, novelist, designer, film director, visual artist and critic. He was one of the foremost avant-garde artists of the 20th-c ...

Christian Bérard Christian Bérard (20 August 1902 – 11 February 1949), also known as Bebè, was a French artist, fashion illustrator and designer. Bérard and his lover Boris Kochno, who worked for the Ballets Russes and was also co-founder of the Ballet ...

and

Georges Auric Georges Auric (; 15 February 1899 – 23 July 1983) was a French composer, born in Lodève, Hérault, France. He was considered one of ''Les Six'', a group of artists informally associated with Jean Cocteau and Erik Satie. Before he turned 20 h ...

, in addition to the entirety of

André Breton André Robert Breton (; ; 19 February 1896 – 28 September 1966) was a French writer and poet, the co-founder, leader, and principal theorist of surrealism. His writings include the first ''Surrealist Manifesto'' (''Manifeste du surréalisme'') ...

's Surrealist group. The audience's positive reception of the film amazed Buñuel, who was relieved that no violence ensued. Dalí, on the contrary, was reportedly disappointed, feeling the audience's reaction made the evening "less exciting". Both of the leading actors of the film eventually committed suicide:

Pierre Batcheff Pierre Batcheff ( Russian: Пьер Батчефф; 23 June 1901? – 13 April 1932) was a French actor of Russian origin. He became a popular film actor from the mid-1920s until the early 1930s, and among his best-known work was the surrealist ...

overdosed on

Veronal Barbital (or barbitone), sold under the brand names Veronal for the pure acid and Medinal for the sodium salt, was the first commercially available barbiturate. It was used as a sleeping aid (hypnotic) from 1903 until the mid-1950s. The chemical ...

on 13 April 1932, in a hotel in Paris, and

Simone Mareuil Simone Mareuil (; 25 August 1903 – 24 October 1954) was a French actress best known for appearing in Luis Buñuel' and Salvador Dali's surrealist film '' Un Chien Andalou (1929)''. Biography Born Marie Louise Simonne Vacher in Périgeux, Fran ...

committed self-immolation on 24 October 1954, by dousing herself in gasoline and burning herself to death in a public square in

Périgueux Périgueux (, ; or ) is a commune in the Dordogne department, in the administrative region of Nouvelle-Aquitaine, southwestern France. Périgueux is the prefecture of Dordogne, and the capital city of Périgord. It is also the seat of ...

, Dordogne. Fano Messan died at age 95 in Juvignac, Hérault, France.

Filmography

* 1928: L'Argento as telephone operator * 1929:

as the androgynous girl

In other media

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Messan, Fano 1902 births People from Tarbes French actresses 1998 deaths