To offer you even more information about the museum and Vincent van Gogh, and serve you better, we use cookies. By clicking ‘Accept’, you are giving us permission to use these cookies. Cookies help us to ensure that the website works properly. We also analyse how the website is used, so that we can make any necessary improvements. Advertisements can also be displayed tailored to your interests. And finally, we use cookies to display forms, Google Maps and other embedded content.
Find out more about our cookies.

Discover the Parisian print world

dance

The number of café-concerts and dance-halls in Paris increased hugely in the late nineteenth century, bringing dancing within reach of every social class and creating all sorts of new and unconventional forms of dance.

Dancing became a symbol of freedom and enjoyment, but also of shallow sensuality and moral decay.

The dancers’ manic movements and the dance-halls’ overheated atmosphere inspired artists to represent them in caricatural and decorative prints.

View this artwork
View this artwork
  • Chahut

    The biggest dance craze was the chahut – an extreme version of the cancan, in which the grinning dancers waved their legs about wildly to reveal their frilly underwear.

    Artists turned the swishing skirts into decorative expanses in their prints, capturing the energy of the performers and their audience.

    The ruling class meanwhile, dismissed dancing like this as ‘hysteria’ and ‘epilepsy’.

  • View this artwork
  • Experimentation and freeform dance

    In addition to these provocative dances, the ethereal style of Loïe Füller was a favourite subject for printmakers. Her elegant choreography served as a contrast with the standard image of the dancer as femme fatale.

    Artists also depicted the dance-halls where both bourgeois and working-class men and women came together to swirl around the dance-floor, the ultimate leisure pursuit.

  • View this artwork

Further Reading

Richard Thomson et al., Toulouse-Lautrec and Montmartre, Washington 2005

Annette Dixon et al., The dancer: Degas, Forain, Toulouse-Lautrec, Portland 2008

Rae Beth Gordon, Dances with Darwin 1875–1910, Aldershot 2008

74 prints in 'dance'

  • p2502S2009
  • p2462cV2006
  • p0157V1966
  • p0574M1990
  • p0066V1962
  • p0437V1982
  • p0807M1994
  • p0808M1994
  • p0914N1996
  • p2437gV2004
  • p1772V2000
  • p1625V2000
  • p1681V2000
  • p1691V2000
  • p1723V2000
  • p1727V2000
  • p1777V2000
  • p1471V2000
  • p1722V2000
  • p1246V2000
  • p1250V2000
  • p1254V2000
  • p1322V2000
  • p1326V2000
  • p1342V2000
  • p1353V2000
  • p1520V2000
  • p1524V2000
  • p1530V2000
  • p1554V2000
  • p1555V2000
  • p1558V2000
  • p1559V2000
  • p1577V2000
  • p1592V2000
  • p1601V2000
  • p1051V2000
  • p1030V2000
  • p1031V2000
  • p1068V2000
  • p1080V2000
  • p1103V2000
  • p1120V2000
  • p1128V2000
  • p1135V2000
  • p2540S2010
  • p2552-004S2010
  • p2553-004S2010
  • p2593-014S2011
  • p2593-018S2011
  • p2593-020S2011
  • p2612-001S2011r
  • p2612-002S2011
  • p2612-004S2011
  • p2612-005S2011
  • p2612-006S2011
  • p1792-001V2000
  • p1792-003V2000
  • p1792-004V2000
  • p1792-005V2000
  • p2612-001S2011v
  • p2634S2011
  • p2639S2011
  • p2647S2012
  • p2652S2012
  • p2670S2012
  • p2672S2012
  • p2714S2013
  • p2771S2015
  • p2778S2015

Search the French print collection

Discover more

Continue your journey into the Parisian print world of the fin de siècle. Discover more printmakers, stories and themes. The connections are endless.

Explore