“Dance (II),” an oil on canvas artwork by Henri Matisse created in 1910, is a quintessential piece exemplifying the Expressionist movement in its vibrant embodiment of motion and emotion. The substantial dimensions of the artwork, measuring 260 by 391 cm, enhance its visual impact. This genre painting is housed at the Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg, Russia, and continues to be a compelling artifact of Matisse’s exploration of form and color.
The artwork illustrates five nude figures rhythmically intertwined in a circular dance against a simplistic background composed of a vibrant blue sky and a green earth, with stark, bold outlines defining their forms. The figures are depicted in various dance positions with limbs outstretched, hands clasped, and bodies curved, giving an impression of perpetual motion and wild abandon. Matisse has employed a limited palette with large areas of flat, unmodulated color, vividly contrasting the red-orange hue of the dancers with the cool tones of the background. The treatment of space and form in the artwork is reduced to the bare essentials, with a focus on the dynamic arrangement of bodies in space, free from the constraints of naturalism or the details of anatomy. “Dance (II)” is imbued with an almost primal energy, reflective of the human spirit in its most expressive and unvarnished form, characteristic of the Expressionist intention to evoke emotional rather than physical reality.
