1756
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
Costumed Dancers Performing in a Garden Tavern is a 1756 by Gabriel de Saint-Aubin, a Romanticism work, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.
You see two dancers in a garden at night, legs kicked high under strings of lanterns and flowers. The moves look silly—no real 18th-century woman would lift her skirt that high. The bells on their jackets and the quick, messy brushstrokes make it feel like a backstage joke, not a polished show. To see more of this playful, sketchy style, look up other works by Gabriel de Saint-Aubin (French, 1724–1780).
Gabriel de Saint-Aubin was known for his rapidly executed, sketchy style, often used to depict performances and social scenes. The exaggerated lifted legs of the dancers seen here imply a comic, theatrical style; no social dance during the 18th century would have permitted such pronounced gestures, especially for a woman. Both dancers wear jackets with irregular hemlines decorated with round bells similar to those found on jesters’ costumes. The lanterns and swags of flowers strung from trees and the small orchestra playing on the right suggest a guinguette, or outdoor tavern with a pleasure…
Gabriel de Saint-Aubin reused the female dancer in another drawing from 1760.
Read the full account in the museum source.
Gabriel de Saint-Aubin was a French draftsman, printmaker, etcher and painter.
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