| Description |
| 'Dance in the City' painted in 1883 by Pierre-Auguste Renoir shows a woman seen in a far more elegant light. "Her head is profile and she wears an elaborate shimmering white dress. Still, her smile is not there. Even facing profile, her mouth tells us about the nature of the dance in this painting. Her lips sit closed together in a straight horizontal line with no teeth showing, not curved up in a pleasant smile. Further, Renoir doesn’t make much of her lips; they are not colored, but more of a nude skin color, so they are barely even visible. This emphasizes the fact that she is not smiling. Her mouth shows there is no sense of joy radiating from her. This may be due to the fact that she is again Suzanne Valadon. Although he paints her more elegantly than in Dance at Bougival, her lips are tight and intense, not smiling enjoying the whirl with her partner. Again, we sense Renoir’s discomfort with Suzanne projected on her in this painting. Renoir may have felt threatened by Suzanne. There is evidence provided by Gotz Adriani that says Renoir preferred women who couldn’t read or write and that he always needed to be in charge of women, “the boss”. Renoir was so concerned with how he was viewed in society, that he felt that he needed to keep women not as smart as him so they would not be a threat to his reputation. From his obvious dislike for Suzanne shown by her unsmiling face in this painting, it seems that he was threatened by her. She appears to have had some wit because she would dance with many men and make a living posing for artists. Thus, Renoir painted her mouth sourly in 'Dance in the City' to almost punish her for her lifestyle." - Impressionism & the Making of Modern Art |
|
