Women dancing in an interior

Depictions of Parisian women during the Second Empire constitute a large part of the graphic work of Constantin Guys, declared by Charles Baudelaire to be the ‘painter of modern life’ (‘peintre de la vie moderne’) in his collection of essays published by Le Figaro in 1863. Here, two women dancing in a cabaret are surrounded by an audience and musicians. These dancing figures, their arms raised, also appear in several other compositions, notably in two studies in the Musée Carnavalet, Paris (inv. 1188; see G. Piersanti in Constantin Guys. Il pittore della vita moderna, exhib. cat., Rome, Palazzo Braschi, 1980, no. 114; and inv. 1176; see J. Alvarez in Constantin Guys. Fleurs du mal, exhib. cat., Paris, Musée de la vie romantique, 2002-2003, no. 74).