The Spanish Dancer by John Singer Sargent
We’re doing gesture sketches this week and this painting came to mind because Sargent captures the pose and movement of the dancer so well. Though his palette is limited, the effect certainly isn’t. He creates a wonderful variety of textures and makes full use of his palette resulting in colors with a rich and earthy vibrancy.
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Friday Favorite posts are where I share paintings and drawings I like. To see more Friday Favorites, click here.
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This is a beautiful painting. His color palette is rich and mystic as the dance but, I am not comfortable with the position of the dancer’s right arm. I have studied it and cannot picture that position actually happening on the human body. Am I not seeing the whole picture?
I enlarged the photo to help see that the dancer has her hand in the supine (inside palm) position on her hip. Thanks for sharing the photo.
I had a similar reaction when I first saw this one. I thought, that’s not possible, oh wait, it is possible. That realization is one of the things I love about this painting.
Some artist’s mistakes are never discovered by them. One of the subjects in a Rockwell painting has six fingers on the person’s hand. It’s not noticeable since the focus of the painting is away from the person’s hand.
The skirt is painterly but the arms are photographic. It is very baroque with the dark and light contrasting. Interesting Friday Favourite!