third french republicconcept:era modern
The Dance
Large-scale oil by Henri Matisse (1909–1910). Five coral-red figures in an ecstatic ring against deep blue sky and green hill. Commissioned by Russian collector Sergei Shchukin. Now at the Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg. One of the defining images of early modernism.
Scholarly Significance
Anchor Fauvism/Matisse cluster with his monumental dance canvas; key node for iconography (ecstatic circle) and critical reception.
Notes
- ·Commissioned by Sergei Shchukin in 1909 along with its pendant Music (1910, also Hermitage).
- ·A smaller first version ('Dance I', 1909) is at MoMA, New York — this is 'Dance II', the final commissioned work.
- ·The simplified coral-red figures against flat blue and green reflect Matisse's reductive color program.
- ·The circular dance motif appears earlier in his Joy of Life (1905–06, Barnes Foundation).
- ·Shchukin initially hesitated to display it in his Moscow home due to the nudity; Matisse visited Moscow 1911 to oversee installation.
- ·The work's Soviet fate: the Shchukin collection was nationalized 1918; Shchukin fled to Paris.