Man Ray created the 1932 Surrealist photograph Glass Tears, showing a woman with painted tears on her face.
The image is a close-up portrait of a woman whose eyes are marked by large, glistening tear shapes. The tears are not natural droplets; they were made as part of the photograph’s staged visual construction. This theatrical artificiality reflects Man Ray’s interest in combining fashion photography, portraiture and Surrealist invention.
The model is often identified as Lee Miller, Man Ray’s former assistant and collaborator, although published discussions of the image have sometimes treated the identification cautiously. The photograph is frequently dated to 1932 and is known in French as Larmes de verre.
Man Ray, born Emmanuel Radnitzky in Philadelphia, became a major figure in both Dada and Surrealism after moving to Paris. His photographic experiments included solarization, rayographs and carefully manipulated studio images. Glass Tears is not a documentary portrait but a deliberately constructed visual illusion.