Belle Haleine, Eau de Voilette

Belle Haleine, Eau de Voilette (Beautiful Breath, Veil Water) is a work of art by Marcel Duchamp, with the assistance of Man Ray.

[4] In 2009, Belle Haleine, Eau de voilette became the most expensive Duchamp piece ever sold at auction when it brought in $11,500,000 (€8,913,000) at Christie's in Paris.

[5][6] Previously, an artist's multiple of Duchamp's famed Fountain owned by Arturo Schwarz held the record, selling for $1,762,500 on November 17, 1999 at Sotheby's in New York.

[7][8] Duchamp removed the label from a Parfums Rigaud [fr] bottle, then proceeded, with Man Ray, to alter the object in several ways.

The first exhibition within which Belle Haleine appeared was organized by the Cordier & Ekstrom Gallery, New York City, in 1965;[5] though a larger collage version of the label was shown in 1930, at Galerie Goemans in Paris.

The name is that of the daughter of Leda (Euripides, Helen, Prologue, v. 133), who was considered in Greek mythology to be the embodiment of ideal beauty and grace, praised in every age.

The title of the ready-made would follow that of Jacques Offenbach, La Belle Hélène, a comic opera in three acts, set in Sparta (first performance: Paris, Théâtre des Varieétés, December 17, 1864).

The heroine "Mariée au peu ardent Ménelas", in the finale runs away with her lover, "Pâris" (text by Henri and Ludovic Halévy).

The American Man Ray would have participated in the work, 'capturing' the photographic image, like Paris, author of the legendary capture of Helen.

However, since every form wants its content, the same spirit [13] could be locked up again in the perfume bottle along with the same humor as Duchamp, [14] who revealed it (made it manifest) from the very moment he concealed it with an artifice.