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Flowing Curves – from Matthijs Maris to Jan Toorop
The longer you ponder over the nebulous illustration shown below, the more details come to the fore. At first glance, the image is misty. The chalk sketch is rendered in barely distinguishable strokes. Gradually, a gracious apparition materialises. Dancing figure, to the left, by Matthijs Maris (1839-1917), slowly discloses a lyrical female dancer wrapped in Read more
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An artistic couple – Mommie Schwarz & Else Berg
Mommie Schwarz (1876-1942) and Else Berg (1877-1942) were among the earliest modernist painters in The Netherlands. They formed part of an ‘artist colony’, The Bergen School, founded by the French artist Henri le Fauconnier and Dutch artist Piet van Wijngaerdt. The artists of the Bergen School rejected impressionism. Their figurative work was influenced by cubism, Read more
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Dancing in De Stijl
In an earlier post, I wrote that Theo van Doesburg (1883-1931), the driving force behind the art movement De Stijl, was a man of immense talent. He was a writer, painter, designer, performance artist, and photographer. Van Doesburg was also fascinated by architecture and envisioned a world where the individual would not be a mere Read more
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Mondrian: ‘My painting is already very fast’
Paris, 1930. When the oncoming American sculptor Alexander Calder (1898-1976) visited Mondrian’s studio at 26 Rue du Départ, he entered ‘a very exciting room’. It was as if he had ‘walked into a painting’. Calder was instantly struck by the light and the whiteness of the space. On the solid wall between the windows, Mondrian Read more
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How Mondrian Loved to Dance
Piet Mondrian’s distinctive art images have integrated into everyday life. His explicit composition of lines, shapes, and colours is applied everywhere. You merely need to Google the term Mondrian to discover mugs, T-shirts, coasters, sneakers, big shoppers, cuff links, and clothing inspired by and reproduced in the unmistakable Mondrian style. Neither merchandise nor marketing, however, Read more
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Theo van Doesburg – ‘step-by-step to abstraction’
In Dancers, a painting I discussed in detail in my previous post, artist Theo van Doesburg, utilising his ‘step-by-step towards abstraction-method’ (1), transformed a figurative image into an abstract composition. In three other dance images, Van Doesburg, the driving force behind the art movement De Stijl, once again began with a figurative sketch and progressively Read more
14th century 15th century 16th century 17th century 18th century 19th century 20th century 21st century Adriaen Brouwer Adriaen Pietersz. van de Venne Adriaen van Ostade Albrecht Dürer Alma-Tadema Anthonie Palamedesz. art Arthurian Legends Bal des Ardents ballet Bergen School Bernard Picart Burgundian Court CoBrA Constant Cornelis Dusart Cornelis Massijs dance Dance around the Golden Calf dancers David Ryckaert III David Teniers the Younger David Vinckboons De Stijl Egg dance Else Berg Erhard Schön Frans Francken II Frans Hals Frans Huysmans George Hendrik Breitner Gertrud Leistikow Gillis Mostaert Haarlem Hans Bol Hans Vredeman de Vries Harmen Meurs Henri Braakensiek Herman Bieling Hieronymus Bosch Hieronymus Francken the Younger illuminated manuscript Isaac Israels Isaac van Ostade Jacob Grimmer Jacob Savery I Jacobus van Looy Jan Brueghel the Elder Jan Mandijn & followers Jan Miense Molenaer Jan Sierhuis Jan Sluijters Jan Steen Jan Toorop Jean-Baptiste Vanmour Jean de Wavrin Jean Froissart Karel Appel Karel van Mander Kees Maks Kees van Dongen Leo Gestel Loyset Liédet Maarten van Heemskerck Maastricht Hours Marius Bauer Marten van Cleve Mommie Schwarz Mondrian Paolo Fiammingo/Pauwels Franck Pieter Aertsen Pieter Balten/Peeter Baltens Pieter Bruegel the Elder Pieter Brueghel the Younger Pieter Codde Pieter de Bloot Pieter van der Borcht Pieter van der Heyden Piet Mondrian Piet van der Hem Romance of Alexander Roman de la Rose Rothschild Canticles Salome Sebald Beham Simon Bening Tango Theo van Doesburg Toer van Schayk Vilmos Huszár Vincent van Gogh Willem de Zwart
About me
As a young aspiring dancer I loved to ponder over the magnificent paintings created by Edgar Degas. How his ballerinas inspired me. The atmosphere of the Paris Opera, the beautiful tutus and the hard working dancers never failed to trigger my imagination. As the years past, I retained my love of dance, of Degas, of art, and developed an interest in knowing more about the cross fertilization between art and dance.
DANCE IMAGES IN THE ART OF THE NETHERLANDS 