Lucy Renee Mathilde Schwob

Style: Surrealism;

Place: Nantes

Born: 1894

Death: 1954

Biography:

Claude Cahun was a French surrealist photographer, sculptor, and writer. Schwob adopted the pseudonym Claude Cahun in 1914. Cahun is best known as a writer and self-portraitist, who assumed a variety of performative personae. In her writing she consistently referred to herself as 'elle' (she), and this article follows her practice; but she also said that her actual gender was fluid. For example, in Disavowals, Cahun writes: 'Masculine? Feminine? It depends on the situation. Neuter is the only gender that always suits me.' Cahun is most well known for her androgynous appearance, which challenged the strict gender roles of her time. During World War II, Cahun was also active as a resistance worker and propagandist.