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[Nude]

Man Ray American
ca. 1930
Not on view
Returned to lender
This work of art was on loan to the museum and has since been returned to its lender.
A masterpiece of modern photography, this nude study explicitly evokes Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres and the early nineteenth-century French tradition of the odalisque. Until recently, the model was believed to be Kiki de Montparnasse, the cabaret singer and artist’s model. The subject’s identity now remains a tantalizing question. Lounging on a daybed, the anonymous figure wears a black lace bodysuit and radiates pleasure like a quiescent python.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: [Nude]
  • Artist: Man Ray (American, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 1890–1976 Paris)
  • Date: ca. 1930
  • Medium: Gelatin silver print
  • Dimensions: Image: 6 1/4 × 8 11/16 in. (15.8 × 22 cm)
    Framed: 17 1/2 × 22 in. (44.5 × 55.9 cm)
  • Classification: Photographs
  • Credit Line: Promised Gift of Ann Tenenbaum and Thomas H. Lee, in celebration of the Museum’s 150th Anniversary
  • Rights and Reproduction: © Man Ray 2015 Trust / Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY / ADAGP, Paris
  • Curatorial Department: Photographs