In Vaudeville: Acrobatic Male Dancer with Top Hat

Discussion

FROM THE BARNES FOUNDATION’S CATALOG

Vaudeville was a type of lighthearted entertainment featuring burlesque comedy, song, and dance. Here, a graceful male dancer leaps to a rousing surge of music. While Demuth's subject was associated with early 20th-century America, the dancer's extended pose and the yellow-and-red bursts of color from the stage lights quote the English Romantic artist William Blake's (d. 1827) illustration Albion Rose , giving this performance an almost mystical verve.

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