Nude Descending a Staircase (No. 3)

Currently not on view

Nude Descending a Staircase (No. 3)

1916

Marcel Duchamp (American (born France), 1887–1968)

In 1916, Marcel Duchamp recreated his Nude Descending a Staircase (No. 2) for his patrons Louise and Walter Arensberg, who had coveted the notorious painting since seeing it at the Armory Show in New York three years earlier. Given that the original was now owned by a San Francisco art dealer who did not want to part with it, Duchamp had a commercial photography studio enlarge a postcard image of the work to match the proportions of the original canvas. The colossal photograph was then meticulously retouched by the artist in a wide variety of mediums, including pencil, ink, watercolor, and pastel, to replicate the crisply delineated forms of the original composition.

Currently not on view

Object Details

Title:

Nude Descending a Staircase (No. 3)

Date:

1916

Artist:

Marcel Duchamp (American (born France), 1887–1968)

Medium:

Graphite, pen and black ink, black paint, colored pencil or crayon, and blue wash on gelatin silver photograph

Dimensions:

58 5/16 × 36 1/8 inches (148.1 × 91.8 cm)

Classification:

Drawings

Credit Line:

The Louise and Walter Arensberg Collection, 1950

Accession Number:

1950-134-60

Geography:

Made in New York, New York, United States, North and Central America

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Currently not on view