la femmes de man ray - donna lecouer/adon lacroix

adon lacroix

design and type-set by man ray for the poem “la logic assassine” by adon lacroix, 1919

adon lacroix sleeping by man ray, 1913

adon lacroix and man ray, ridgefield, 30 May 1915

 the morning telegraph -" man ray & adon la croix, economists" - march 14, 1915

i can find so little of adon lacroix, man ray's first wife....mostly the same few lines of information. 

in august of 1913 man ray met poet adon lacroix (the pen name of donna lecoeur) along with her partner sculptor, adolf wolff. they had recently moved to new york from belgium & had a child but were not married. man ray found her beautiful & upon learning of her strained living conditions with adolf, invited her to live with him in ridgefield, new jersey. she moved in with her 7 year old daughter esther.  

adon, the youngest of fourteen children,  was a painter & a poet & the two young lovers engaged in artistic collaboration. while adon painted landscapes & wrote poetry, man ray directed his attention to her for inspiration - almost immediately, she became the sole focus of his artistic vision. 

they were married in 1914 & man ray changed his name officially (man ray appears on the wedding registry instead of emmanuel radnitzky). man ray does lettering for adon's texts & embellishes them with drawings. in 1919 he breaks off with lacroix. they were formally divorced in 1937.

i wish i had more information on her....i just purchased a book on man ray & lee miller that includes some of his letters to miller - he seemed quite obsessive & jealous! it seems also that he took great pains to nurture the artistic talents of his lovers.  the hunt continues!