The Dancer

Details

Sir Edward John Poynter, P.R.A., R.W.S. (1826-1919)
The Dancer
signed with monogram and dated '18/98' (centre right)
pencil and watercolour heightened with bodycolour on paper
12 x 9 ½ in. (30.5 x 24.2 cm.)

Provenance

Anonymous sale; Sotheby's, Belgravia, 18 April 1978, lot 38.
Anonymous sale; Christie's, London, 4 November 1994, lot 48, where purchased by the present owner.

Literature

C. Monkhouse, 'The Life and Work of Sir Edward J. Poynter', Easter Art Annual, 1897, pp. 22 (repr.), 23, 32.

Exhibited

London, Royal Society of Painters in Watercolours, 1896, no. 205.

Brought to you by

Clare Keiller

ckeiller@christies.com +44 (0)20 7389 2729

Lot Essay

This picture has been known as Glycera in recent years, but is clearly the watercolour reproduced as The Dancer in Cosmo Monkhouse's account of Poynter's career. The sitter holds a tambourine with which she presumably accompanies her dance, and seems to be the same model that posed for the dancer in Poynter's picture The Ionian Dance, exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1895 (repr. Monkhouse, p. 27). Features, headdress and drapery are all similar.

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