Elsa von Freytag’s Fountain

The Fountain (1917) is a work attributed to Marcel Duchamp. It is probable that, without knowing it, it was given to him by Elsa von Freytag (Poland, 1874-Paris, 1927), a multidisciplinary artist and dedicated agitator. The alarm was raised when, in 1982, letters were found from Duchamp to his sister in which he wrote: “A friend, using the pseudonym of Richard Mutt, sent me a porcelain urinal in the form of a sculpture to be exhibited; as there was nothing indecent about it, there was no reason to refuse it”. For a time it was thought to be a private joke, but more data collected, as well as the extensive work done by Irene Gammel in Body Sweats: The Uncensored Writings of Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven, support the theory that The Source was Elsa von Freytag’s idea.