Some works of art live in spite of themselves – outgrowing their own shortcomings, going beyond what they seem at first glance.
“Mona Lisa”, “The Scream”, “Girl with a Pearl Earring” – these paintings have long been part of visual folklore, almost cultural memes. And yet every time we look at them, they fascinate us again.
So too Man Ray’s iconic photograph Le Violon d’Ingres (Engr’s Violin, 1924), in which the American Surrealist living in France depicted the body of a lover transforming it into a musical instrument.
This cold metamorphosis – from person to thing – did not diminish the appeal of the image, but rather increased its magnetism.
In 2022, Engra’s Violin was sold at auction for more than $12 million, a record sum for the photograph.
So why, despite its provocation, does this painting still fascinate viewers, even a hundred years after its creation?
The Muse of Montparnasse
The photograph shows the back of the famous model, artist and singer Alice Pren, better known as Kiki de Montparnasse – a legend of the 1920s Parisian bohemians.
She sits up straight with her back proudly erect, arms tucked in front, head turned slightly to the side. It has only a turban of patterned fabric and long earrings.
On Kiki’s skin, Man Ray has painted two black marks in the shape of the letter f – e.g. cut praises” the curves of Kiki’s body – he reinterprets them, turning living flesh into a “tuned” object, an instrument that can be played… and silenced.”
In music, the f-holes define the strength and purity of an instrument’s sound. On Kiki’s body, they become a symbol of the loss of her voice. Placed on her back – where they cannot sound – they rob the singer of her own voice, turning the woman into a thing.
Man Ray’s photograph echoes the famous French artist Jean Engra’s painting “Les Bathers de Valpenson” (1808), where Engra, striving for the ideal, deliberately distorted the female anatomy: he lengthened the spine, thinned the limbs, and broke the proportions for the sake of beauty.
Photo by Musee du Louvre/ Philippe Fuzeau
And in the famous “Grand Odalisque” (1814), critics even calculated that Jean Engr ich, part of the music industry, where sound and body are subject to spectacle.
From mysticism to metaphysics
The musical sign also turns into a sign of mystery.
The violin has had occult connotations since ancient times: in art and myths, it connects the world of the living and the world of spirits. From Bruegel and Paganini to Proust, the violin has sounded like the voice of the otherworld.
Proust wrote that hearing the violin is “like listening to a captive genius struggling in the dark.”
Man Ray continues this tradition: his Kiki becomes a mediator between the body and the invisible, a conduit of sound across the boundaries of perception.
Ray didn’t just take photographs – he created talismans. His “reiograph” technique, to which this work refers, was to bypass the cold mechanics of the camera: the subjects were laid out directly on light-sensitive paper because he considered ear floss.
Photo by Man Ray/ J. Paul Getty Museum
In ancient times, music was thought to combine body and soul. In the myth of Orpheus and in the symbolism of 17th-century metaphysician Robert Fludd, music reflects the perfect harmony that permeates the entire universe.
In the case of Kiki, the violin becomes a symbol of metamorphosis, where celestial vibrations are transmitted to the human body. Man Ray, turning Kiki’s back into a violin, as if adjusting it to the frequency of invisible harmonies. Her body vibrates in unison with the universe, and the dark holes become portals through which this invisible music can be heard.
The result is not just an image – an enigma where passion and power, creative freedom and bodily submission intertwine.
“Engra’s violin” still remains a mysterious symbol of love and the continuation of the role, femininity and corporeality, spirituality and materiality.
It continues to “sound” without sound, transmitting a magical vibration that even today influences the imagination and emotions of the viewer.