A portrait of the iconic figure François "Féral" Benga (1906-1957). Silver print, the image measuring 168x114 mm; 6⅝x4½ inches, with Waléry's signature and notation Paris in ink on recto, and his copyright stamp on verso. Circa 1930.
Benga was a well-known figure in both Paris and New York. The Senegalese dancer shared a stage with Josephine Baker at the Folies Bergère in Paris, starring in sensational, exoticized shows. In New York, he moved in both the Harlem Renaissance and gay circles of Manhattan. Richmond Barthé, Carl van Vechten, and George Platt Lynes, among others, made portraits and sculptures inspired by Benga (Barthé's an iconic, signature work), and he starred in Jean Cocteau's "The Blood of a Poet." By 1947, Benga had opened a bar in Paris that featured an African cabaret.
