Man Ray created the 1924 photograph Le Violon d’Ingres, showing a woman’s back marked like a violin.
The model was Kiki de Montparnasse, the Paris artist and performer who was Man Ray’s companion during the 1920s. Man Ray photographed her nude from behind and added the two sound holes of a stringed instrument, turning the body into a visual pun. The French title refers to the expression “violon d’Ingres,” meaning a hobby or special talent outside one’s main profession.
The image combines portraiture, erotic photography and Surrealist transformation. It is sometimes confused with Man Ray’s later solarized portraits or with works by Lee Miller, who was his assistant and collaborator. Le Violon d’Ingres is now in the J. Paul Getty Museum collection.