The Dance in the Park

Artist Nicolas Lancret (French, 1690-1743)

Place of OriginFrance

DateProbably 1730s

DimensionsH: 44 in. (111.7 cm); W: 57 in. (144.7 cm)

MediumOil on canvas

ClassificationPaintings

Credit LinePurchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey

Object number

1954.17

Not on View

Label TextIn a lush park presided over by a classical sculpture of Bacchus, Roman god of wine, a group of young, well-dressed pleasure-seekers converse with and romance one another. The focal point of the painting is the couple engaging in a dance, each shown mid-step. The man, wearing a mask and a colorful costume derived from stock theater characters, twists his torso elegantly, arm stretched towards his partner. He plays the castanets in accompaniment to the hurdy-gurdy player sitting in the shadows beneath the sculpture. The rich yellows, reds, and blues of this painting are typical of Lancret’s palette.Published ReferencesToledo Museum of Art, The Toledo Museum of Art, European Paintings, Toledo, 1976, p. 91, pl. 195.

Grigaut, Paul L., "Baroque and Rococo France in Toledo," Art Quarterly, vol. 19, no. 1, Spring 1956, p. 53.

"French Art (1600-1800)," Toledo Museum of Art Museum News, vol. 3, no. 4, Autumn 1960, p. 87, repr.

Wittmann, Otto, "L'Art Francais au Musée de Toledo," Connaisance, no 125, July 1962, pp. 40-47, appendix, p. 111, repr. p. 44.

Watson, F.J.B., "Eighteenth-Century Painting and Decorative Arts," Apollo, vol. 86, no. 70, Dec. 1967, repr. fig. 8, p. 458.

Watteau et la fête galante, Paris. Société Française de Promotion Artistique, 2004, p. 27, repr. (col.) pp. 28-9.

Holmes, Mary Tavener, Nicholas Lancret: Dance Before a Fountain, Los Angeles, J. Paul Getty Museum, 2006, p. 59, fig. 53, p. 58.

Carey, Juliet, Theatres of Life: Drawings from the Rothschild Collection at Waddesdon Manor, London, 2007, p. 158 n.3, fig. 46.

Exhibition HistoryLondon, Royal Academy, France in the Eighteenth Century, 1968, no. 387.

Valenciennes, Musée des Beaux-Arts, Watteau et la fête galante, 2004, no. 67, p. 228, repr. (col.) pp. 226-7.