Gaston Lachaise

Image not available
Gaston Lachaise
1882-1935
Two Veiled Dancers
1934
Pen and ink and graphite pencil on paper.
23 1/4 x 18 1/4 inches (59.1 x 46.4 cm)
Gift of Pat and Paul Kaplan, Kraushaar Galleries, Carole M. Pesner, and George and Linda Kelly, and purchase on the Manley Family Fund.
2021.129
Notes: 

The son of a cabinetmaker, Lachaise received his academic training in Paris, before moving to the United States in 1906. He achieved recognition as a sculptor in the 1920s, primarily for his depictions of voluptuous female nudes. He explored the same subject in drawings, characterized by a fluid, sensuous line. In the 1930s, he often found inspiration in dancers observed at the burlesque theater, which he frequently attended with the poet E.E. Cummings. These late drawings, such as the present one, typically depict two women dancing. Lachaise's swift and exuberant line captures the movement and rhythm of the dancers while anatomical exaggerations add a touch of humor to the drawing.

Inscription: 

Signed twice, in pencil at lower left and in pen and ink at lower right, G Lachaise.

Provenance: 
Robert Schoelkopf Gallery, New York; Felix Landau Gallery, Los Angeles, from which acquired by Mr. and Mrs. Maurice Vanderwoude, Great Neck, Long Island, New York, 1969
Artist page: 
Century: 
Classification: