La Camargo Dancing
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.
Details
- Palette
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- Medium
- oil on canvas
- 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.)
- Department
- CF
- Holding institution
- National Gallery of Art
- Image provider
- national-gallery-of-art
- License
- CC0-1.0
- Credit
- Andrew W. Mellon Collection
Art Genome Taxonomy
9 tags
Subject Matter
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Movement Both · 99%
The catalog describes men and women gathering and dancing, and the image clearly centers on a partnered dance with extended arms and pointed feet.
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Performing Arts Both · 98%
Musicians and dancers are visible in the scene, making musical and theatrical performance a central subject.
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Crowds Both · 95%
Twenty-one figures are distributed across the foreground and middle ground in groups of dancers, musicians, spectators, and conversational participants.
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Leisure Both · 94%
The figures participate in an outdoor gathering characterized by sociability, music, dance, and observation, while the image shows these activities taking place in a cultivated park.
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Landscapes Both · 99%
A broad wooded park with layered trees, open sky, a fountain, and distant foliage occupies much of the composition; the catalog also identifies the setting as a verdant landscape.
Visual Qualities
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Earth Tones Visual · 96%
Muted greens, browns, ochres, and warm golds dominate the landscape and clothing, with restrained accents of pale blue, coral, pink, and teal.
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Highly Detailed Visual · 87%
The image contains numerous articulated details in the figures’ costumes, floral decorations, instruments, foliage, architectural elements, and gestures.
Medium and Techniques
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Oil Painting Metadata · 99%
The National Gallery of Art identifies the work as oil on canvas.
Time Periods
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18th Century Art Metadata · 99%
The catalog dates the painting to circa 1730, placing it within the eighteenth century.
Source & rights
Nicolas Lancret. La Camargo Dancing. Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington.