Gypsy Dance

Flamenco, as a visual motif, triumphed in late 19th-century Paris. The image of the defiant Gypsy woman was highly attractive, becoming an international archetype of "Spanishness" as an evocation of the wild and exotic.

Anglada-Camarasa contributed like few others to stimulating the passion for Gypsy dance and the spectacle associated with it. He never stopped painting these types of scenes, highlighting the strength and intensity of movement, female erotica, and the abandon of the Gypsy celebration.

The bailaora (dancer) in the center dominates the composition. Her flamenco outfit, with its yellow skirt, unfolds and glitters like a peacock's tail, establishing a counterpoint to the other characters in the scene—guitarists and singers in a dismal nocturnal setting.

Perhaps the attire, with its brilliant coloring, is the true protagonist of the work. Anglada found in the embroidery of Manila shawls and dresses a highly expressive tool for his painting, which captures all the attention here.

In Paris, Anglada developed his own aesthetic. He immortalized the stereotypical image of the femme fatale through a very personal style of painting, where light and dabs of color bring to life "wicked" female figures in nightclubs.

That turn-of-the-century Paris lived fascinated by the exoticism of what was typically Spanish. The paintings of Gypsy dances even followed a pre-established formula: the dancer in the foreground as the protagonist, with a circle of guitarists and palmeros (clappers) serving as the backdrop.

For his iconography, Anglada took elements from Spanish folklore, accentuating the ornamental with motifs that refer to Oriental arts. In fact, the painter collected various garments and objects of Asian origin, purchased in Parisian antique markets.

He later used these references to set the scene for his compositions. This interest of his in Oriental decorative arts aligns with the widespread enthusiasm among late-century artists for exotic artistic objects.

Dating this painting is not easy, as Anglada-Camarasa painted similar scenes throughout his career due to their commercial success. The figures of the dancer and the guitarists appear in other works created around 1910.

This fact, along with the density of the material—which caused the heavy craquelure clearly visible today, typical of his Parisian years—and the dedication to the American patron Charles Deering, who died in 1927, places the work within the artist's youthful production.

From the mid-19th century onward, the presence of Gypsies in Spanish art became highly significant. The exotic, the picturesque, and folkloric typicality became aesthetic motifs highly valued by all art world figures: painters, critics, and collectors.

In addition to Anglada’s work, we find compositions featuring Gypsies by the leading authors of the time, such as Fortuny, Nonell, Casas, Rusiñol, Rodríguez-Acosta, López Mezquita, Romero de Torres, Zuloaga, or Iturrino.