Dancing Girl with Castanets
Artist: Pierre-Auguste Renoir (French, 1841-1919)
Date: 1909
Medium: Oil on canvas
Collection: The National Gallery, London, United Kingdom
Description
This picture, together with its companion piece Dancing Girl with Tambourine (also in the National Gallery’s collection), was made to decorate the dining room of the Paris apartment of one of Renoir’s most important clients, Maurice Gangnat. Of the two dancers, this figure has the more animated pose. Her foot is raised and Renoir has created a long, sinuous line up through her leg and arms to suggest her turns and twists as she clacks the castanets. The way the edges of her sheer, shimmering costume blur into the vibrant colours of the background also enhances the impression of movement.
Renoir used Georgette Pigeot, a dressmaker who often posed for him, to model the body of the dancer. The head of this figure, however, is that of Gabrielle Renard, nursemaid and housekeeper for the Renoir family, who was one also of his favourite models. Her costume has elements of oriental or near-Eastern style (in the short, gold-coloured bodice, for example), but the red flowers in her hair are reminiscent of Spain, as are the castanets.
