All Artworks
Fauvism

The Dance

Five nude figures join hands in a circle dance against a vivid blue and green background, their bodies simplified to bold vermillion curves.

Significance

The ultimate expression of Matisse's belief that art should be "like a good armchair" for the mind. Its radical simplification shocked contemporaries but defined modernist decoration.

Medium

Oil on canvas

Dimensions

260 cm × 391 cm

Location

Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg, Russia

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