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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
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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