20 Facts About Claude Cahun

Claude Cahun was born in Nantes in 1894, into a well-off literary Jewish family.

Avant-garde writer Marcel Schwob was her uncle and Orientalist David Leon Claude Cahun was her great-uncle.

When Claude Cahun was four years old, her mother, Mary-Antoinette Courbebaisse, began suffering from mental illness, which ultimately led to her mother's permanent internment at a psychiatric facility.

Claude Cahun attended a private school in Surrey after experiences with antisemitism at high school in Nantes.

Claude Cahun began making photographic self-portraits as early as 1912, and continued taking images of herself throughout the 1930s.

Around 1914, she changed her name to Claude Cahun, after having previously used the names Claude Courlis and Daniel Douglas.

Claude Cahun's works encompassed writing, photography, sculpture and theatre, of which the most remembered are the highly staged self-portraits and tableaux that incorporated the visual aesthetics of Surrealism.

Claude Cahun gave a unique perspective within surrealism, using mirrors, collages and doubling in her photos to reflect the diversion from social norms.

For example; in one photo Claude Cahun is seen in a top that reads 'i am in training, do not kiss me.

Claude Cahun's published writings include "Heroines", a series of monologues based upon female fairy tale characters intertwined with witty comparisons to the contemporary image of women; Aveux non avenus, a book of essays and recorded dreams illustrated with photomontages; and several essays in magazines and journals.

In 1932, Claude Cahun joined the Association des Ecrivains et Artistes Revolutionnaires, where she met Andre Breton and Rene Crevel.

In 1934, Claude Cahun published a short polemic essay, Les Paris sont Ouverts, and in 1935 took part in the founding of the left-wing anti-fascist alliance Contre Attaque, alongside Andre Breton and Georges Bataille.

Claude Cahun's work was often a collaboration with Marcel Moore.

Claude Cahun is buried in St Brelade's Church with partner Moore.

At the trial, Claude Cahun said to the German judge that the Germans would have to shoot her twice, as she was not only a Resister but a Jew.

Claude Cahun made work for herself and did not want to be famous.

Claude Cahun's work was largely unrecognized until 40 years after her death.

In many ways, Claude Cahun's life was marked by actions which revolted against convention, and her public image has since become a commentary which challenges the public's notions of gender, beauty, and logic.

Claude Cahun's work was meant to unsettle the audience's understanding of photography as a documentation of reality.

Google honored Claude Cahun by showing an animated Doodle on its home page in many countries on 25 October 2021, on the anniversary of what would have been her 127th birthday.