Portrait en pied de René Destouches, oncle de Louis-Ferdinand Céline, et sa femme

Rare photographic portrait of René Destouches, uncle of Louis-Ferdinand Céline accompanied by his wife, Pauline Dauteville.
Vintage gelatin silver print.
Inscription "M. et Mme Destouches" ["Mr. and Mrs. Destouches"] on verso. One small corner loss and minimal creasing.

René Destouches, brother of Fernand Destouches, married Pauline Dauteville, with whom he had two children. Céline borrowed his moonstruck character, inherited from a fall from the cliffs of Sainte-Adresse "il était tout à fait sonné. Il se marrait doucement quand on lui parlait. Il se répondait à lui-même" ["he was completely dazed. He would laugh softly when spoken to. He would answer himself"] and the hard labor he endured throughout his life for the character of Uncle Rodolphe in Death on the Installment Plan. To darken the picture even further, Céline probably lent Uncle Rodolphe elements from the life of another of his uncles, Charles Destouches, whose wife had disappeared tragically at the age of twenty-eight: "Une pauvre malheureuse, elle crachait déjà ses poumons. Ça a pas duré trois mois" ["A poor unfortunate woman, she was already coughing up her lungs. It didn't last three months"] (Death on the Installment Plan, Denoël & Steele, 1936).