雖然如此,這幅畫實際上還是得以在1912年10月的黄金分割沙龍(Salon de la Section d'Or)中以原標題參展。此外,它還出現在了《Du "Cubisme"》一書及1912年秋季沙龍的展出「立體之家」(La Maison Cubiste)中。歷史學家彼得·布魯克(Peter Brooke)說:“就是因想呆在這些藝術家群體中他(杜尚)才撤回了作品。不像他自己說的那樣,他當時的地位其實相當優越”。[16]
杜尚后來又將此作提交給1913年美國紐約軍械庫展覽會的評委,標題為“Nu descendant un escalier”[17][18],同時印刷的明信片上顯示的英文名字為“Nude Descending a Staircase”[19]。此作在美國也備受嘲諷,1913年一年就有多出滑稽劇上映[20]。《美國藝術新聞》多次懸賞以期讀者能找出畫中所謂的裸體[21]。
在軍械庫展覽會展出時此畫被舊金山的律師兼藝術商弗雷德里克·托利(Frederic C. Torrey)買下,挂在伯克利的家中。1919年在找人畫了一幅原大的複製品後,托利將原作賣給了美國藝術品收藏家沃爾特·康拉德·阿倫斯伯格(Walter Conrad Arensberg)及其妻路易絲(Louise)[24]。1954年此画按二人遺願捐給費城美術館,此後直到今日就是一直該館的藏品。[25]
參考文獻
^Roger Allard, Sur quelques peintre, Les Marches du Sud-Ouest, June 1911, pp. 57-64. In Mark Antliff and Patricia Leighten, A Cubism Reader, Documents and Criticism, 1906-1914, The University of Chicago Press, 2008
^Note: After the 1912 Salon d’Automne, the Cubists came under attack from Nationalist politicians in the French National Assembly. Albert Gleizes mounted a defence in terms of their straightforward patriotism. Further reading on the controversy: Kenneth Silver, Esprit de Corps, Princeton 1989; David Cottington, Cubism in the Shadow of War: the Avant-Garde and Politics in Paris 1905–1914, New Haven 1998; Peter Brooke, Albert Gleizes: For and Against the Twentieth Century, Yale University Press, New Haven, 2001
^Mr. Roosevelt on the Cubists, The Literary Digest, April 5, 1913, p. 772 (页面存档备份,存于互联网档案馆),quote: Take the picture which for some reason is called 'A Naked Man Going Down Stairs'. There is in my bathroom a really good Navajo rug which, on any proper interpretation of the Cubist theory, is a far more satisfactory and decorative picture. Now, if, for some inscrutable reason, it suited somebody to call this rug a picture of, say, 'A Well-Dressed Man Going Up a Ladder', the name would fit the facts just about as well as in the case of the Cubist picture of the 'Naked Man Going Down Stairs'. From the standpoint of terminology each name would have whatever merit inheres in a rather cheap straining after effect; and from the standpoint of decorative value, of sincerity, and of artistic merit, the Navajo rug is infinitely ahead of the picture.