Flying Dutchman

Man Ray American

On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 911

The painting Flying Dutchman originates from an early photograph Man Ray made of sheets on a clothesline in New York called Moving Sculpture. The painting’s title suggests that the image reminded him of ship sails and, more specifically, of Richard Wagner’s celebrated tragic opera The Flying Dutchman (1843), based on the legend of a ghost ship doomed to journey aimlessly forever, its sails in tatters.

Flying Dutchman, Man Ray (American, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 1890–1976 Paris), Oil on board

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