Like other artists associated with Italian Futurism, Severini was fascinated by the interactions of movement and matter and the dynamic speeds of the modern world. In his manifesto Plastic Analogies of Dynamism (1913–14), written just before this work was painted, he describes the sensory and visual "analogies" that resonate across seemingly unrelated objects, from a dancing girl to a rushing express train to abstract forms. Here, he uses the same shapes and colors to convey the movements of a dancer, a spinning airplane propeller, and the roiling sea. The painting’s unusual diamond shape—the only example in Severini’s oeuvre—enhances the disorienting effect of simultaneous motion.
Inscription: Signed (bottom point of diamond): G. Severini; signed, dated, and inscribed (verso): Gino Severini/ "Danseuse—Hélice—Mer"/ Paris. 1915
the artist, Paris (1915–17; shipped in October 1916 to New York, valued at Fr 600; left on June 22, 1917 with Stieglitz; possible gift in summer 1917 to Stieglitz); Alfred Stieglitz, New York (1917–d. 1946; his estate, 1946–49; gift to MMA)
Galerie Boutet de Monvel, Paris. "Gino Severini: Première exposition futuriste d'art plastique de la guerre et d'autres oeuvres antérieures," January 15–February 1, 1916, no. 13.
New York. 291. "Paintings, Drawings, Pastels by Gino Severini," March 6–17, 1917, no catalogue (checklist no. 7; the artist's handwritten list as drawing no. 7).
New York. Grand Central Palace. "First Annual Exhibition of the Society of Independent Artists," April 10–May 6, 1917, no. 74.
Philadelphia Museum of Art. "History of an American, Alfred Stieglitz: '291' and After, Selections from the Stieglitz Collection," July 1–November 1, 1944, no. 115.
Museum of Modern Art, New York. "Twentieth Century Italian Art," June 28–September 18, 1949, unnumbered cat. (pl. 24, reproduced sideways).
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Modern Paintings—Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries," July 8–September 6, 1950, no catalogue.
Museum of Modern Art, New York. "From the Alfred Stieglitz Collection: An Extended Loan from the Metropolitan Museum of Art," May 22–August 12, 1951, no catalogue (checklist no. E.L.51.701; loan extended to March 20, 1961).
Florence. Palazzo Pitti. "Gino Severini, 1883–1966: Mostra in occasione del centenarío della nascita," June 25–September 25, 1983, no. 41.
New Haven. Yale University Art Gallery. "Severini futurista, 1912–1917," October 18, 1995–January 7, 1996, no. 26.
Fort Worth. Kimbell Art Museum. "Severini futurista, 1912–1917," February 11–April 7, 1996, no. 26.
Kunsthalle, Stiftung Henri und Eske Nannen, Emden. "Tanz in der Moderne: Von Matisse bis Schlemmer," October 26, 1996–January 26, 1997, no. 149 (as "Tänzerin=Propeller=Meer").
Haus der Kunst München. "Tanz in der Moderne: Von Matisse bis Schlemmer," February 6–April 27, 1997, no. 149.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Painters in Paris: 1895–1950," March 8–December 31, 2000, extended to January 14, 2001, unnumbered cat. (p. 37).
Venice. Peggy Guggenheim Collection. "Gino Severini: The Dance, 1909–1916," May 26–October 28, 2001, no. 43.
Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art. "Picasso and the School of Paris: Paintings from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York," September 14–November 24, 2002, no. 23.
Tokyo. Bunkamura Museum of Art. "Picasso and the School of Paris: Paintings from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York," December 7, 2002–March 9, 2003, no. 23.
Milan. Museo di Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Trento e Rovereto. "Illuminazioni. Avantguardie a confronto: Italia, Germania, Russia," January 17–June 7, 2009, no. 142.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Stieglitz and His Artists: Matisse to O'Keeffe," October 13, 2011–January 2, 2012, no. 40.
New York. Museum of Modern Art. "Inventing Abstraction, 1910–1925," December 23, 2012–April 15, 2013, no. 100.
Henry McBride. "News and Comment in the World of Art." Sun (March 11, 1917), sec. 5, p. 12.
Emily Genauer. "Art and Artists: Unfettered Art Has Taken Over the Metropolitan's Gallery B 17." New York Herald Tribune (August 13, 1950), p. D5.
Marianne W. Martin. Futurist Art and Theory, 1909–1915. Oxford, 1968, fig. xv facing p. 198.
George Heard Hamilton. "The Alfred Stieglitz Collection." Metropolitan Museum Journal 3 (1970), pp. 382–83, fig. 10.
Piero Pacini, ed. "Omaggio a Severini: Futurismo ed oltre contributo agli 'Archivi del Futurismo'." Critica d'arte 35 (May-June 1970), p. 50.
Joan M. Lukach. "Severini's 1917 Exhibition at Stieglitz's '291'." Burlington Magazine (April 1971), pp. 199, 200 n. 22, pp. 201, 204, 205 nn. 58, 65, 66, p. 206, fig. 39.
Donald E. Gordon. Modern Art Exhibitions, 1900–1916: Selected Catalogue Documentation. Vol. 2, Munich, 1974, p. 886.
Joan M. Lucach [sic]. "Severini's Writings and Paintings, 1916-1917, and His Exhibition in New Jork [sic] City." Critica d'arte (November-December 1974), pp. 59, 78 n. 5.
Angelica Zander Rudenstine. The Guggenheim Museum Collection: Paintings 1880–1945. New York, 1976, vol. 2, pp. 656–59.
Clark S. Marlor. The Society of Independent Artists: The Exhibition Record, 1917–1944. Park Ridge, N.J., 1984, p. 494.
Maria Drudi Gambillo and Teresa Fiori, ed. Archivi del futurismo. 2nd ed. (1st ed., 1962). Rome, 1986, vol. 2, pp. 333, 340, no. 74, ill.
Margaret Reeves Burke. "Futurism in America, 1910-1917." PhD diss., University of Delaware, 1986, pp. 61–62, 82 n. 72.
Gary Tinterow et al. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Vol. 8, Modern Europe. New York, 1987, p. 121, colorpl. 98.
Daniela Fonti. Gino Severini: Catalogo ragionato. Milan, 1988, p. 199, no. 239, ill.
Giorgio Di Genova. Storia dell'arte italiana del '900: Per generazioni. Vol. 1, Generazione maestri storici. Bologna, 1993, part 1, p. 441.
Gino Severini. The Life of a Painter: The Autobiography of Gino Severini. (Italian ed., 1983). Princeton, 1995, fig. 28.
Katherine Hoffman. Stieglitz: A Beginning Light. New Haven and London, 2004, p. 289.
Lisa Mintz Messinger inStieglitz and His Artists: Matisse to O'Keeffe. The Alfred Stieglitz Collection in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Ed. Lisa Mintz Messinger. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2011, pp. 69, 74–75, 253, no. 40, ill. (color).
Isabelle Duvernois inStieglitz and His Artists: Matisse to O'Keeffe. The Alfred Stieglitz Collection in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Ed. Lisa Mintz Messinger. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2011, p. 74, fig. 25 (photograph of X-radiograph).
Now on view at The Met Fifth Avenue, Rashid Choudhury's 1981 tapestry is an aesthetically innovative work by an influential artist, writer, and teacher.
Editorial Assistant Rachel High speaks to Randall Griffey, curator of the exhibition Thomas Hart Benton's America Today Mural Rediscovered and co-author of the accompanying Bulletin, about Benton's mural and the connections between his art and life.
The Met's Libraries and Research Centers provide unparalleled resources for research and welcome an international community of students and scholars.
The Met Collection API is where all makers, creators, researchers, and dreamers can connect to the most up-to-date data and public domain images for The Met collection. Open Access data and public domain images are available for unrestricted commercial and noncommercial use without permission or fee.
Feedback
We continue to research and examine historical and cultural context for objects in The Met collection. If you have comments or questions about this object record, please complete and submit this form. The Museum looks forward to receiving your comments.
The Met's engagement with art from 1890 to today includes the acquisition and exhibition of works in a range of media, spanning movements in modernism to contemporary practices from across the globe.
