Le Violon d’Ingres is a witty take on the turbaned, exotic nudes by the nineteenth-century French painter Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres (1780–1867) that Man Ray had admired at the Louvre in Paris. After taking a photograph of Kiki (born Alice Prin, a celebrated artist’s model, cabaret singer, and artist), he likened her shapely form to the curves of a string instrument by drawing f-shaped sound holes at her waist. He then rephotographed the composition. As the title refers to the French term for “hobby” (Ingres enjoyed playing the violin), Man Ray’s seductive image is also a sly erotic pun.