Pose 1

Michel Bascoulard, a gifted self-taught illustrator and a tramp by conviction, created a body work without ever leaving Bourges, his hometown. Cross-dressing led him to take an interest in photography: he wanted to capture his multiple female personalities, which he preferred to his vagabond look. "If I walk around in women's clothing, it's because I think it’s more aesthetic," he said.

From 1944 until his tragic death in 1979, Bascoulard uninterruptedly made many photographic self-portraits of himself as a woman. He proceeded methodically, numbering each of his many "poses", which always show him standing facing the camera. The setting changes. He often holds a fragment of a mirror with an enigmatic meaning in his left hand. His looks changed over the years, but his self-awareness and almost spectral pose remained unchanged.

The Pinault Collection has many photographs by Bascoulard, which it presented for the first time at the 2018 "Dancing with Myself" show at the Punta della Dogana in Venice.