Tänzerin

With a bold turn of her body, the female figure strides into the space with a floating movement, swinging her left arm to the rear. As a result of the dancer’s forward movement, her clothes blow in the head wind. The floor-length garment clings tightly to her body in parts, while fluttering upward at its end. Through the dress, Franz von Stuck generates a wave-like play of lines whose surface ornamentation is typical for Jugendstil’s decorative forms. The rendition of the figure, reminiscent of the ancient goddess of victory, Nike, references the veil dance popular around 1900. Stuck took a great interest in dance and theater, which is reflected in the numerous motifs of movement in his work. The »Dancer«, which is meant to resemble his wife, Mary, also forms the counterpart to the earlier sculpture »Athlete«, a muscular man lifting a ball. For Stuck, the pair of figures symbolized the physical relationship between the sexes, which he described as the “power of the man and the gentle suppleness of the woman.” The pair decorated the altar to art which he erected in his studio in the famous Villa Stuck in Munich.