Man Ray's 1939 painting, *Le Beau Temps*, was inspired by Elsa Schiaparelli's Spring 1939 Haute Couture collection, which had a Commedia dell'arte theme. The geometrically shaped figure in the painting resembles the patchwork Harlequin coat from that collection, which was made of blue, black, red, yellow, and white wool felt diamonds.

Moreover, the head of the harlequin painted by Man Ray is strongly reminiscent of the bottle in the shape of a lit candle, with its conical snuffer, that Schiaparelli had designed for the Sleeping perfume in 1938.

Sleeping, La Commedia dell'Arte and Le Beau Temps are all ironic allusions to the very unstable political situation that preceded the Second World War due to the rise of Nazism.