La Camargo Dancing

c. 1730

Nicolas Lancret

Artist, French, 1690 - 1743

Twenty-one men in long waistcoats and women in elegantly trimmed gowns gather and dance within a verdant landscape in this horizontal painting. The men wear jackets and breeches in ginger brown, pale pink, or spruce blue. The women’s gowns have full sleeves, tight-fitting bodices, and full skirts in shades of bronze, teal blue, butterscotch gold, or rich pink edged with ribbons and lace. Some of them wear floral wreaths or ribbons in their upswept hair. Groups gather around a woman and man who dance together to our left in the scene. Some in the group of onlookers to our left hold musical instruments, including a violin and a pipe. Another group is nestled among trees just beyond the dancers, at the center of the painting, and more sit and stand to our right. The dancing woman wears a gleaming, ice-blue gown with rows of flowers in muted pink, blue, and gold down the full skirt and around the bottom hem, which falls short of her thin ankles. More garlands cross her chest and shoulders, and flowers are tucked into her dark gray hair. She faces us with her head turned to our right as she looks off in that direction with dark eyes under curving brows. She has a delicate nose, rosy, round cheeks, and pink lips. She holds her arms spread wide with the thumb touching the index finger of each hand. The man with whom she dances wears a coral-red tunic and breeches with sleeves decorated with pale pink and blue ribbons. The brim of his brown hat is turned up. His body faces us but he turns his head to look at the woman, his lips parted. The man and woman each have one gracefully pointed foot raised. The dancers and groups are enclosed within a park-like setting with tall trees to either side, and a screen of trees across the back of the space. The trees have slender trunks and canopies in shades of pine, sage, and moss green. Near the back middle of the scene, a stone column topped by a human head wearing a wreath of laurel leaves rises above the central group. A fountain with a vertical jet of water is tucked into the shadows within a grove of trees along the right edge of the painting. The water falls into a pool in the lower right corner.

Media Options

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Nicolas Lancret was one of Antoine Watteau's most talented followers and helped to disseminate the taste for fête-galante subjects in the eighteenth century. On the far left musicians are hidden amidst the trees, while across the canvas from left to right, arranged on an exaggerated S curve, stylishly dressed spectators have assembled in intimate groups to watch a couple perform a pas de deux. Lancret, like Watteau, was often inspired by the stage, and the female dancer depicted here is Marie-Anne de Cupis de Camargo, a ballet star of the Paris Opéra.

La Camargo is dressed in a white gown embroidered with flowers, suggesting a pastoral opera. She is gracefully poised and her partner's gestures subtly mirror her movements. Camargo, who was immensely talented, expanded the repertoire of eighteenth-century ballet with new steps that encouraged active footwork. To facilitate her movements, she shortened her skirts and may have been one of the first dancers to wear ballet slippers.

Lancret's weaving of figure and landscape into an intricate curvilinear design epitomizes the rococo style. The color scheme imbues the composition with a magical quality where the idea of nature and the fantasy of the theater are merged to create an idyllic setting for La Camargo's fashionable audience - who were also Lancret's patrons.

On View

West Building Main Floor, Gallery 54

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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    oil on canvas

  • Credit Line

    Andrew W. Mellon Collection

  • Dimensions

    overall: 76.2 x 106.7 cm (30 x 42 in.)
    framed: 107.3 x 135.9 x 9.2 cm (42 1/4 x 53 1/2 x 3 5/8 in.)

  • Accession

    1937.1.89

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Friedrich II, King of Prussia [1712-1786], Potsdam; by descent in the Hohenzollern family to Kaiser Wilhelm II [1859-1941] Berlin;[1] sold December 1927 through (Hugo Moser, Berlin) to (Duveen Brothers, Inc., London, New York, and Paris); purchased April 1928 by Andrew W. Mellon [1855-1937], Pittsburgh and Washington, D.C.; deeded 1 May 1937 to The A.W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, Pittsburgh;[2] gift 1937 to NGA.
[1] Inv. no. GK I 5297, Generalkatalog of the imperial collection, compiled in the late 19th century; this information was kindly provided by Dr. Christoph M. Vogtherr, curator of paintings, Stiftung Preussische Schlösser und Gärten Berlin-Brandenburg, Potsdam, 13 April 1999, letter to Nancy Yeide (NGA curatorial files). The provenance to Prince Carignan and Count von Rothenburg published in The Rococo Age, exh. cat., High Museum of Art, Atlanta, 1983, no. 43, is incorrect since the painting once belonging to the Prince was of smaller dimensions than the NGA painting. The two paintings purchased by Count von Rothenburg from Prince Carignan for Frederick II were not identified in the letter of 1744 in which they were mentioned.
[2] The Duveen Brothers Records document the company's acquisition of some of Kaiser Wilhelm II's paintings (Research Library, Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, accession no. 960015, reel 96, box 241, folder 1; copies in NGA curatorial files). On 25 November 1927 the Paris office wrote to New York: "The majority of the Emperor's castles with their contents were taken over by the State... The Government allowed the Kaiser to retain certain pictures as being his own personal property, and these he has the right to sell." On December 5 the Paris office cabled New York that Duveen's offer for the Lancret and another painting had been accepted, and on December 13 Paris reported that the paintings had been delivered safely. The Lancret was then shipped to New York by steamer on 8 February 1928.
The Mellon purchase date and the date deeded to the Mellon Trust are according to Mellon collection records in NGA curatorial files and David Finley's notebook (donated to the National Gallery of Art in 1977, now in the Gallery Archives).

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1932

  • Exhibition of French Art 1200-1900, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1932, no. 170.

1935

  • French Painting and Sculpture of the XVII Century, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1935-1936, no. 11, repro.

1983

  • The Rococco Age: French Masterpieces of the Eighteenth Century, Hight Museum of Art, Atlanta, 1983, no. 43.

1991

  • Nicolas Lancret: 1690-1743, The Frick Collection, New York; The Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, 1991-1992, no. 5, pl. 9.

1992

  • Friedrich der Grosse: Sammler und Mäzen, Kunsthalle der Hypo-Kulturstiftung, Munich, 1992-1993, no. 49, repro.

2003

  • The Age of Watteau, Chardin, and Fragonard: Masterpieces of French Genre Painting, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Altes Museum, Berlin, 2003-2004, not in cat. (shown only in Washington).

2014

  • De Watteau à Fragonard. Les fête galantes, Musée Jacquemart-André, Paris, 2014, no. 40, repro.

Bibliography

1764

  • Oesterreich, Matthias. Beschreibung der Königlichen Bildergallerie und des Kabinets im Sans-Souci. Potsdam, 1764: 134, no. 146. Reprint 1996.

1773

  • Oesterreich, Matthias. Beschreibung aller Gemählde, Antiquitäten, und anderer kostbarer und merkwürdiger Sachen, so in dene beyden Schlössern von Sans-Souci, Schlosse zu Potsdam und Charlottenburg enthalten sind. 1773: 118, no. 114. Reprint Potsdam-Sanssouci: Staatliche Schlösser und Gärten, 1990.

1863

  • Parthey, Gustav Friedrich. Deutscher Bildersaal. Verzeichniss der in Deutschland vorhandenen Oelbilder verstorbener Maler aller Schulen. 2 vols. Berlin, 1863-1864: 2(1864):10, no. 3.

1875

  • Bocher, Emmanuel. Les gravures françaises du XVIIIe siècle; ou, Catalogue raisonné des estampes, eaux-fortes, pièces en couleur, au bistre et au lavis, de 1700 à 1800. 6 vols. Paris, 1875-1882: 4(1877):80, no. 114, as Mademoiselle de Camargo avec son danseur.

1883

  • Dohme, Richard. "Die Ausstellung von Gemälden älterer Meister im Berliner Privatbesitz. Die Französische Schule des XVIII. Jahrhunderts. II. Die Schule Watteau's." Jahrbuch der Königlich Preussischen Kunstsammlungen 4 (1883): 251, no. 26, as Der Schäfertanz an der Herme.

1900

  • Seidel, Paul. Les collections d’oeuvres d’art françaises du XVIIIe siècle appartenant à Sa Majesté l’empereur d’Allemagne roi de Prusse. Berlin, 1900: 92, repro. (detail), 101, no. 60.

  • Seidel, Paul. Les collections d'art de Frédéric le Grand à l'exposition Universelle de Paris de 1900. Berlin, 1900: 41, repro. (detail), 42, no. 15.

1911

  • Hourticq, Louis. Histoire générale de l'Art. France. Paris, 1911: 257, fig. 537 (French ed.). (Published simultaneously in English, German, Italian, and Spanish, with differing pagination and figure numbers).

  • Phillips, Sir Claude. "Two Famous Dancers of the Eighteenth Century." Art Journal (1911): 430.

1912

  • Pilon, Edmond. Watteau et son école. Brussels and Paris, 1912: 198, 201, repro. between 204 and 205.

1924

  • Wildenstein, Georges. Lancret. Paris, 1924: no. 585, fig. 140.

1929

  • Osborn, Max. Die Kunst des Rokoko. Berlin, 1929: repro. 169, 610.

1935

  • Tietze, Hans. Meisterwerke europäischer Malerei in Amerika. Vienna, 1935: 256, repro. (English ed., Masterpieces of European Painting in America. New York, 1939: 256, repro.).

1937

  • Jewell, Edward Alden. "Mellon's Gift." Magazine of Art 30, no. 2 (February 1937): 82.

  • Cortissoz, Royal. An Introduction to the Mellon Collection. Boston, 1937: 44.

1941

  • Preliminary Catalogue of Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1941: 103, no. 89.

1942

  • Book of Illustrations. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1942: 241, repro. 47.

1948

  • "A Portrait of Mlle. Camargo by Caffieri." Bulletin of the California Palace of the Legion of Honor 6, no. 6 (October 1948): 59, repro.

1949

  • Paintings and Sculpture from the Mellon Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1949 (reprinted 1953 and 1958): 102, repro.

1952

  • Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds., Great Paintings from the National Gallery of Art. New York, 1952: 116, color repro.

1956

  • Einstein, Lewis. “Looking at French Eighteenth-Century Pictures in Washington.” Gazette des Beaux-Arts 6th ser., 47, no. 1048-1049 (May-June 1956): 220, fig. 6, 224-225.

1959

  • Cooke, Hereward Lester. French Paintings of the 16th-18th Centuries in the National Gallery of Art. Washington, D.C., 1959 (Booklet Number Four in Ten Schools of Painting in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.): 28, color repro.

1962

  • Meisterwerke aus den Schlössern Friedrichs des Grossen. Exh. cat. Schlöss Charlottenburg, Berlin, 1962: 57, no. 45.

1963

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. New York, 1963 (reprinted 1964 in French, German, and Spanish): 316, repro.

1965

  • Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 72.

1966

  • Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds. A Pageant of Painting from the National Gallery of Art. 2 vols. New York, 1966: 2:304, color repro.

1968

  • National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 63, repro.

1975

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 186, repro.

1979

  • Bartoschek, Gerd. Die Gemälde im Neuen Palais. Potsdam, 1979: 40, no. 114.

1984

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 330, no. 439, color repro.

1985

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 220, repro.

  • Holmes, Mary Tavener. "Nicolas Lancret and Genre Themes of the Eighteenth Century." Ph.D. dissertation, Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, New York, 1985: 1-5, fig.162.

1986

  • Grasselli, Margaret Morgan. "Eleven New Drawings by Nicolas Lancret." Master Drawings 23-24, no. 3 (Autumn 1986): 383, 385, fig. 13.

1989

  • Ingamells, John. The Wallace Collection, Catalogue of Pictures. Vol. 3, French before 1815. London, 1989: 220-223.

1991

  • Holmes, Mary Tavener. Nicolas Lancret, 1690-1743. Edited by Joseph Focarino. Exh. cat. Frick Collection, New York; Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, 1991-1992. New York, 1991: 67-68, no. 5, pl. 9.

1992

  • Friedrich der Grosse, Sammler und Mäzen. Exh. cat. Kunsthalle der Hypo-Kulturstiftung, Munich, 1992: 134-135, no. 49.

  • National Gallery of Art. National Gallery of Art, Washington. New York, 1992: 167, repro.

  • Wintermute, Alan. "One of the Great Sponges: The Art of Nicolas Lancret." Apollo 135 (March 1992): 190-191, fig. 2.

1998

  • Faxon, Alicia Craig. "Dance/Dancers/Dancing." In Encyclopedia of Comparative Iconography: Themes Depicted in Works of Art. 2 vols. Edited by Helene E. Roberts. Chicago and London, 1998: 1:209.

2001

  • Vogtherr, Christoph Martin. Nicolas Lancret. Porträt der Tänzerin Maria Sallé. Berlin, 2001: 13, fig. 5, 15, 36.

2004

  • Hand, John Oliver. National Gallery of Art: Master Paintings from the Collection. Washington and New York, 2004: 254, no. 205, color repro.

2006

  • Holmes, Mary Tavener. Nicolas Lancret: Dance Before a Fountain. Los Angeles, 2006: 1, 74-76, color fig. 68, 114 n. 56.

2009

  • Conisbee, Philip, et al. French Paintings of the Fifteenth through the Eighteenth Century. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, 2009: 279-287, no. 64, color repro.

2011

  • Vogtherr, Christoph Martin. Französische Gemälde I: Watteau, Pater, Lancret, Lajoüe. Berlin, 2011: no. A 14, 675-677, 784, repro.

Inscriptions

Labels removed from stretcher or backing board, in curatorial files: rectangular label, digits in red, "No. 21012 / PICTURE"; rectangular label, digits in red, "No. 25535 / PICTURE"; rectangular label, slightly torn around edges, "S.L. No. 2447.1/ THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM/ OF ART/ SPECIAL LOAN EXHIBITION/ OF/ FRENCH/ [X] VIII CENT. PAINTINGS & SCULPTURE/ Title... Mlle Camargo Dansant/ Artist... Lancret/ Owner... Andrew W. Mellon/ Address... 1785 Massachusetts Ave/ Return Address... Washington DC."

Wikidata ID

Q20177841

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