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Diderot's Harpsichord or The Merchant of Venice
Diderot's Harpsichord or The Merchant of Venice

Diderot's Harpsichord or The Merchant of Venice

Artist Man Ray American, 1890–1976
Date1948
MediumOil on canvas
Dimensions34 x 24 in. (86.4 x 61 cm)
Frame: 34 1/4 x 25 1/2 x 3/4 in. (87 x 64.8 x 1.9 cm)
ClassificationsPaintings
Credit LineGift of Dr. and Mrs. Paul Wescher
Object numberG.57.30.1
On View
On view
Label Text
In 1936, fellow Surrealist Max Ernst took Man Ray to a Paris science museum to see some eccentric objects. Crafted out of wood, plaster, and wire, they had been made in the 1880s by a French mathematician to illustrate certain algebraic formulas. Man Ray, struck by their lyrical qualities, photographed the constructions. Twelve years later he took things one more step, making the photographs the basis for a series of paintings, including this one. He mystifyingly titled the series "Shakespearean Equations" and assigned each painting the name of a Shakespeare play.
The title notwithstanding, little in this painting informs viewers of either the French encyclopedist's admiration for an early keyboard instrument or Shakespeare's improbable romantic comedy. The reference to Diderot, however, is a clue to Man Ray's approach to art. Diderot used the harpsichord to explain the function of memory: the sensation lingers in the mind after it has been registered, in the way a note continues to vibrate after it has been played. Just as different keys can be struck simultaneously, the mind can entertain more than one notion or memory at the same time. The mixture produces new, unanticipated ideas, just what the Surrealists were looking for.
ProvenanceCreated Los Angeles, 1948; collection of the artist, Hollywood, CA; Mary Wolfe Stothart (later Mrs. Paul Wescher), Santa Monica, CA; Dr. and Mrs. Paul Wescher, Santa Monica, CA; given to NCMA, 1957.
Published ReferencesMan Ray, "A Note on the Shakespearean Equations," in To Be Continued Unnoticed (exhibition catalogue) (Beverly Hills, CA: Copley Galleries, 1948.

Paul Wescher, "Man Ray as Painter," Magazine of Art 46 (January 1953), 31-37, illus. (b-w) 36 (as collection of Mrs. Mary Stothart, Santa Monica, CA).

Man Ray, Self Portrait (Boston: Little, Brown, 1963), discussed generally 291-2.

Man Ray (exhibition catalogue) (Los Angeles, CA: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1966), cat. no. 91, illus. (b-w).

American Paintings since 1900 from the Permanent Collection (exhibition catalogue) (Raleigh: North Carolina Museum of Art, 1967), cat. no. 64, illus. (b-w).

The Surrealists (exhibition catalogue) (Kalamazoo, MI: Kalamazoo Institute of Arts, 1971), illus. (b-w) 6.

Arturo Schwartz, Man Ray: The Rigour of Imagination (New York: Rizzoli, 1977), noted 79, illus. (b-w) fig. 144.

Richard Studing, Shakespeare in American Painting: A Catalogue from the Late Eighteenth Century to the Present (Rutherford: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1993) discussed 24, listed no. 623, illus. (color).

Man Ray–Human Equations: A Journey from Mathematics to Shakespeare, Wendy A. Grossman and Edouard Sebline, eds. (exhibition catalogue) (Ostfildern: Hatje Cantz Verlag for the Phillips Collection and the Israel Museum, 2015), 79–85, illus. (color) 81, also listed 225 and illus. (color) 224.
Exhibition History[Beverly Hills, CA, Copley Galleries, "To Be Continued Unnoticed" (one-man show), December 14, 1948-January 9, 1949.]

Los Angeles, CA, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, "Man Ray," October 25, 1966-January 1, 1967, no. 91, illus. (b-w).

Raleigh, North Carolina Museum of Art, "American Paintings since 1900 from the Permanent Collection," April 1-23, 1967, no. 64, illus. (b-w).

Kalamazoo, MI, Kalamazoo Institute of Arts, Genevieve and Donald Gilmore Art Center, "The Surrealists," May 9-June 6, 1971, illus. (b-w) 6.

Stratford, Ontario, The Gallery/Stratford, "Fantastic Shakespeare," June 6-July 23, 1978.

Washington, DC, The Phillips Collection, “Man Ray–Human Equations: A Journey from Mathematics to Shakespeare,” February 7–May 10, 2015; Jerusalem, The Israel Museum, October 2015–January 2016, 79–85, illus. (color) 81, also listed 225 and illus. (color) 224.

Raleigh, NC, North Carolina Museum of Art, "“a little offbeat, a little dreamy, and mysterious,” November 15, 2023-present.
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