Mlle Camargo Dancing

The celebrated ballerina Marie-Anne de Cupis de Camargo performs an entrechat on stage in this 1730 painting at the Hermitage Museum. Camargo revolutionized ballet by shortening her skirts to reveal her brilliant footwork, and she became a favorite subject for painters. Lancret painted her several times, capitalizing on the public fascination with this dancer who packed the Paris Opera. The painting documents both a specific performer and the broader eighteenth-century cult of the ballerina as public celebrity.

Camargo occupies center stage, her shortened skirts captured mid-leap to display the footwork that made her famous. Lancret places her against a dark theatrical backdrop with musicians and spectators arranged to frame her figure. The palette centers on the brilliant white and pale colors of her costume, which contrasts with the darker tones of the surrounding figures and stage architecture. The brushwork achieves a remarkable sense of arrested motion in the dancer"s pose.