©1947, Dorothy Dehner
Currently not on view
Suite Moderne, Fandango,
1947
Dorothy Dehner, 1901–1994; born Cleveland, OH; died New York, NY; active New York
2003-232
Prior to establishing her own artistic career in the 1950s, Dehner worked primarily in the shadow of her first husband, the sculptor David Smith, with whom she lived between 1927 and 1950—a time that she described as one of "great elation and deep sorrow." During the late forties, the couple’s rapidly disintegrating relationship, together with the destructive horrors of World War II and Dehner’s training as a modern dancer, inspired a series of expressive surrealistic works on paper titled Suite Moderne. Here, three ghoulish castanet-clicking couples perform contorted versions of the fandango, the Spanish courtship dance, against the backdrop of a rocky moonlit landscape.
More About This Object
Information
Title
Suite Moderne, Fandango
Dates
1947
Maker
Medium
Gouache and watercolor with pen and black ink
Dimensions
44.5 x 33 cm (17 1/2 x 13 in.)
Credit Line
Gift of the Dorothy Dehner Foundation for the Visual Arts
Object Number
2003-232
Signatures
Signed and dated in black ink, lower right: Dorothy Dehner '47
Inscription
in black ink, lower right: Fandango
Culture
Period
Type
Materials
Acquired from the Dorothy Dehner Foundation;
- "Acquisitions of the Princeton University Art Museum 2003," Record of the Princeton University Art Museum 63 (2004): p. 101-141., p. 106 (illus.)
- John Wilmerding et al., American Art in the Princeton University Art Museum: volume 1: drawings and watercolors, (Princeton: Princeton University Art Museum; New Haven, CT; London: Yale University Press, 2004), p. 203, cat. no. 50; p. 205 (illus.); p. 346, checklist no. 957
