La Poupée evolved out of a series of events in Hans Bellmer's personal life: his cousin, Ursula Naguschewski, moving from Kassel to Berlin in 1932; an encounter with renowned dollmaker Lotte Pritzel and his attendance of a performance of Jacques Offenbach's Tales of Hoffmann, in which the protagonist falls in love with an automaton; and his mother shipping him his old toys.

Bellmer constructed several dolls, the first dating from 1933, which he assembled and photographed in strange and disquieting configurations. Ten of these photographs were published in Germany as Die Puppe (1934). It was Bellmer's cousin Ursula who, while studying at the Sorbonne in 1934, apparently first brought Bellmer's photographs to the attention of André Breton in Paris. In 1934, the Surrealist journal Minotaure published a portfolio of these images, and in 1936, one was published in an issue of Cahiers d'art devoted to the Surrealist object. Guy Levis Manos published this expanded French Edition with an introduction by Bellmer, translated by Robert Valencay. In February 1938, Bellmer left Berlin for Paris.

First edition, number 76 of 100 copies with 5 hors commerce, this being one of 80 copies on papier rose; (159 x 123 mm, 6¼ x 4¾ in); 10 mounted gelatin silver photographs (116 x 77 mm, 4½ x 3 in), text translated by Robert Valençay; pink wrappers, light wear, peach printed folding cover with titles on upper side in black, light wear to extremities and folds, a near-fine copy in a custom box by Devauchelle; [44]pp.

Les éditions GLM, 1923-1974 no. 100; The Book of 101 Books: Seminal Photographic Books of the Twentieth Century pp88-89; The Photobook: A History I, p106; The Open Book p120-121; Paris, Les livres de photographies 1920-1950, p176-177.