Dancers in Art: From Ballet to Tango
Like all movement, dancing can seem difficult to capture in a painting. But this doesn’t mean that artists haven’t tried and succeeded. People dancing in art aren’t all that uncommon. Whether alone or in a pair, each of these paintings depicts dancers. Artists throughout the ages have been intrigued by the idea of capturing both the emotion and purpose of the dance’s steps. Here are a few paintings that attempt to do just that: Bold Ballet Anna Pavlova as Bacchante. 1911. John Lavery In this portrait, famous ballerina Anna Pavlova is depicted by Irish painter John Lavery (1856-1941) dancing in the “Autumn Bacchanal” from Glazunov’s “The Seasons”. She’s dressed as a bacchante – a female follower of Dionysius in Greek mythology. Anna Pavlova is shown throwing her head back in abandon, while gracefully lifting a scarlet veil over her head. She wears a simple white tunic with grapes in her hair, symbolizing autumn and wine’s intoxication. Her dance seems to mimic a trance, which...