The Three Dancers
| The Three Dancers | |
|---|---|
| Artist | Pablo Picasso |
| Year | 1925 |
| Medium | Oil on canvas |
| Dimensions | 215.3 cm × 142.2 cm (84.8 in × 56 in) |
| Location | Tate Gallery, London |
The Three Dancers (French: Les Trois Danseuses[1]) is a painting by Spanish artist Pablo Picasso, painted in June 1925. It is an oil on canvas and measures 84.8 in x 56 in (215.3 cm x 142.2 cm).[2]
Description
[edit]The painting shows three dancers, the one on the right being barely visible. A macabre dance takes place, with the dancer on the left having her head bent at a near-impossible angle. The dancer on the right is usually interpreted as being Ramon Pichot, a friend of Picasso who died during the painting of Three Dancers. (Some critics believe it could well be Picasso's wife Olga Khokhlova.[3]) The one on the left is claimed to be Pichot's wife Germaine Gargallo with the one in the centre being Gargallo's boyfriend Carlos Casagemas, also Picasso's friend.[4] Casagemas shot himself after failing to shoot Gargallo, twenty-five years before Pichot's death, and the loss of two of his best friends spurred Picasso to paint this chilling depiction of the love triangle.
Background
[edit]Picasso painted The Three Dancers in Paris after a trip to Monte Carlo with his wife, ballet dancer Olga Khokhlova. At this time, Picasso was attracted to André Breton's Surrealism movement.[5] In 1926 the painting appeared in Breton's work Le surréalisme et la peinture (Surrealism and Painting). Others link The Three Dancers to Picasso's failing marriage to Khokhlova.[6]
Its caption at the Tate Gallery gives some insight into the background of the painting:
The jagged forms of Three Dancers convey an explosion of energy. The image is laden with Picasso's personal recollections of a triangular affair, which resulted in the heart-broken suicide of his friend Carlos Casagemas. Love, sex and death are linked in an ecstatic dance.[7]
It is owned by the Tate Gallery, London, having been purchased by it in 1965, and is currently on display as part of the Tate Modern's 'Poetry and Dream' exhibition.[8] The purchase was facilitated by Picasso's friendship with Roland Penrose who was a trustee of the Tate at that time.
Related works
[edit]Composer and ukulele player Ryan Choi's debut album Three Dancers was named after the painting.[1]
References
[edit]- ^ Pinsent, Ed. "Dance of Death – The Sound Projector". Retrieved 2018-12-07.
Notes
[edit]- ^ Picasso called it Les Trois Danseuses (French) despite being a Spanish citizen, and the painting is occasionally called this, the original title (see [9]), as well as its English translation. Picasso lived in France and French titles for his paintings were not uncommon (see Garçon à la pipe and Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, for instance).
- ^ Three Dancers at Artchive
- ^ Three Dancers at everything2.com
- ^ The Guardian's Arts Feature, 7 July 2001
- ^ The Guardian's Arts Feature, 7 July 2001
- ^ Tate Gallery: The Three Dancers
- ^ Tate Gallery: The Three Dancers
- ^ web.org.uk - The Three Dancers