Les Orientales
Malvina HOFFMAN
(American, 1885-1966)
Les Orientales
Date1914
Mediumbronze
Dimensionsobject: 11 3/4 × 8 × 8 3/4 in. (29.8 × 20.3 × 22.2 cm)
ClassificationSCULPTURE
Credit LineSBMA, Gift of Mrs. George M. Newell
Object number1946.5.2
Subject(s)
- dance
- nudes
Collection
- 20th century American
On View
Not on viewLabel TextA double portrait of the acclaimed Ballets Russes dancers Anna Pavlova and Laurent Novikoff, this sculpture shows the duo in a ballet first staged in 1913, which the young Philadelphian Malvina Hoffman would have seen in London. While in the actual ballet the dancers would have been clad in elaborately exotic costumes designed by Léon Bakst, the artist chooses to show the pair nude. As such, they have become timeless, suspended forever in a passionate and erotically-charged moment.
Adolphe WILLETTE
1888
