| Dance | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Artist | Henri Matisse |
| Year | 1910 |
| Medium | Oil on canvas |
| Movement | Fauvism |
| Dimensions | 260 cm × 391 cm (102.4 in × 153.9 in) |
| Location | The Hermitage,St. Petersburg |
Dance (La Danse) is a painting made byHenri Matisse in 1910, at the request of Russian businessman and art collectorSergei Shchukin, who bequeathed the large decorative panel to theHermitage Museum, inSaint Petersburg. The composition of dancing figures is commonly recognized as "a key point of (Matisse's) career and in the development of modern painting".[1] A preliminary version of the work, sketched by Matisse in 1909 as a study for the work, resides atMoMA inNew York, where it has been labeledDance (I).
La Danse was first exhibited at theSalon d'Automne of 1910 (1 October – 8 November), Grand Palais des Champs-Élysées, Paris.[2]
| Dance (I) | |
|---|---|
%2c_Museum_of_Modern_Art.jpg) | |
| Artist | Henri Matisse |
| Year | 1909 |
| Catalogue | 79124 |
| Medium | Oil on canvas |
| Dimensions | 259.7 cm × 390.1 cm (102.2 in × 153.6 in) |
| Location | Museum of Modern Art,New York City |
| Accession | 201.1963 |
In March 1909, Matisse painted a preliminary version of this work, known asDance (I).[3] It was a compositional study and uses paler colors and less detail.[4] The painting was highly regarded by the artist who once called it "the overpowering climax of luminosity"; it is also featured in the background of Matisse'sNasturtiums with the Painting "Dance I", (1912).
It was donated byNelson A. Rockefeller in honor ofAlfred H. Barr Jr. to theMuseum of Modern Art in New York.
Dance is a large decorative panel, painted with a companion piece,Music, specifically for the Russian businessman and art collectorSergei Shchukin, with whom Matisse had a long association. Until theOctober Revolution of 1917, this painting hung together withMusic on the staircase of Shchukin'sMoscow mansion.[5]
The painting shows five dancing figures, painted in a strong red, set against a very simplified green landscape and deep blue sky. It reflects Matisse's incipient fascination withprimitive art, and uses a classicFauvist color palette: the intense warm colors against the cool blue-green background and the rhythmical succession of dancing nudes convey the feelings of emotional liberation andhedonism. The painting is often associated with the "Dance of the Young Girls" fromIgor Stravinsky's famous 1913 musical workThe Rite of Spring. The composition or arrangement of dancing figures is reminiscent ofBlake's watercolour "Oberon, Titania and Puck with fairies dancing" from 1786.[6]
Dance is commonly recognized as "a key point of (Matisse's) career and in the development of modern painting".[7] It resides in theHermitage Museum in St. Petersburg. It was loaned toH'ART Museum for a period of six weeks from April 1 to May 9, 2010.[8]
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The French art periodicalVerve published a lithographic version of the HermitageLa Danse in its Volume 1, Issue 4, January–March 1939. On page 50 of this issue, it is stated: "Henri Matisse has painted forVerve a replica of his large painting,La Danse . . .. This is reproduced lithographically on the following pages [book-ended by two linocuts of skaters in motion]." The lithography was carried out by Mourlot Freres (Paris). This lithographic version is, with margins, 14" × 25" and therefore much smaller than the painted versions. The lithographic version is hardly a "replica" of the Hermitage version, as several differences can be readily observed:
(1) the green area in the lithographic version is a lime green.
(2) the sky is virtually black (but with some blue near borders and edges of figures),
(3) color areas are internally uniform, eschewing any painterly effects,
(4) the lines in the figures are thicker, giving the image - with its uniform color areas – somewhat the appearance of a woodcut, and
(5) the entire image is surrounded by a "frame" consisting of flat yellow, blue, and black color areas. The entire lithograph has the look of a genre that Matisse invented in the late 1930s, namely, the colored-paper cut-out and lithographic versions thereof.
