Burlesque Dancer with Headdress, Arms Upraised and Veil

The American sculptor Gaston Lachaise (1882-1935) was fascinated by the world of the burlesque, in which sensual female bodies in motion offered him an array of visually captivating poses. Lachaise made a great many drawings of dancers in provocative postures that he sketched in energetic, confident lines. He gradually shifted the portrayal of the female nude towards an ever more unrestrained expression that disregarded the established canon of figurative art. In his dancing figures, Lachaise intentionally emphasized breasts, buttocks and hips that assumed almost unnatural proportions. The dancers wearing headdresses and veils are imbued with the mysterious dignity of Oriental goddesses and their impassive faces are suggestive of ancient idols. Lachaise drew them as classical Bacchantes coming from another world. His series of drawings from the American burlesque milieu created in the first half of the 1930s was a celebration of womanhood in its archaic form, with its expressive sensuality and voluptuous corporeality.