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I'm currently researching the photographer and model Lee Miller and the photographers, painters and models she knew, as well as anyone else to whom she was close.

One of the people Miller was closest to in her life was, of course, her first husband Aziz Eloui Bey. Their union involved an interesting four-way meeting of hearts. Eloui Bey was still married to his first wife when he met Miller, the model Nimet Eloui Bey. Miller was also attached, being in an intimate relationship with the photographer and painter Man Ray. It's well known that the other two vertices of this love quadrilateral knew each other: Man Ray photographed Nimet, clothed, several times. I was curious about just how familiar this relationship became, hence my question: Did Man Ray ever photograph Nimet in the all together? (Did anyone?)

Here's what I've managed to find in my research so far:

  • I've found one of Man Ray's nude studies which looks like it might depict Nimet. You can view it here. (Be warned that, while the image in question is artistic rather than pornographic, it does nevertheless depict a woman fully nude.)
  • The only information about the above image that I could find stated that it was taken around 1935.
  • According to Carolyn Burke's Lee Miller: A Life, Nimet threatened her husband Aziz Aloui Bey with suicide when he left her for Miller. I remember reading one - admittedly not very reputable - article stating that she did in fact take her own life. Meanwhile, according to Anthony Penrose's The Lives of Lee Miller, Nimet drank herself to death in a hotel room in 1932. Was she alive at the time the above nude photograph was taken?
  • If she was alive at the time, is there any other reason why she couldn't be the woman in the above nude photograph?

I'll leave you with a clothed portrait of Nimet, with her head in a similar position to that in the unclothed portrait I linked to above. (Numerous other pictures of her face are available by Googling "Nimet Eloui Bey".)

enter image description here

A snip showing the face from the linked photo for comparison: enter image description here

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    Is "in the altogether" a euphemism for "nude"? I've never heard that before and it took me a moment to figure out that seems to be what you mean?
    – Brian Z
    May 17, 2020 at 20:41
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    @BrianZ Ha ha. Yes it does. I thought the word nude would most likely get the question closed before anyone had the chance to answer it. Happy to be corrected on that supposition!
    – chancellorofpaphos
    May 17, 2020 at 21:34
  • The noses in your linked picture and the one above are quite different.
    – Jon Custer
    Sep 14, 2020 at 14:39
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    I inserted the face from the linked photo for comparison. (and I also agree it doesn't look like the same person)
    – justCal
    Sep 14, 2020 at 16:01

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Your question was helpful for my own research on Lee Miller. Nimet Eloui born Khairy was alive in 1935. After divorcing Aziz Eloui (who married Lee Miller) she eventually married a Russian prince, Nikolay Mestchersky (spelling varies). She died on 4 August 1942 and is buried in the Russian Orthodox cemetery of Sainte-Genevieve-des-Bois about 40km south of Paris under the name Irina (Nimet) Mestchersky (with this spelling) born Khairy. (see enlarged tombstone to verify) This is her grave, and this is a picture of the plaque. Personally I can't swear to recognize her in Man Rays' study of nude, but she wasn't dead, nor did she commit suicide.

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