The Dance

The Dance (second version) (La Danse), is a painting from 1910 by Henri Matisse. The Dance (second version), is a large decorative panel, painted with a companion piece, La Musique, specifically for the Moscow mansion of the Russian businessman and art collector Sergei Shchukin, with whom Matisse had a long association. The painting shows five dancing figures, painted in a strong red, set against a very simplified green landscape and deep blue sk... more

The Dance (second version) (La Danse), is a painting from 1910 by Henri Matisse. The Dance (second version), is a large decorative panel, painted with a companion piece, La Musique, specifically for the Moscow mansion of the Russian businessman and art collector Sergei Shchukin, with whom Matisse had a long association. 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 with primitive art, and uses a classic Fauvist colour palette: the intense warm colors against the cool blue-green background and the rhythmical succession of dancing nudes convey the feelings of emotional liberation and hedonism. The painting is often associated with the "Dance of the Young Girls" from Igor Stravinsky's famous musical work The Rite of Spring. The Dance (second version) is commonly recognized as "a key point of (Matisse's) career and in the development of modern painting". It is... less