{"product_id":"18762-villon-jacques-le-cake-walk-des-petites-filles-1904","title":"Villon, Jacques. (1875–1963) Le Cake Walk des Petites Filles, 1904","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"space-top space-bottom\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eLe Cake Walk des Petites Filles, 1904. \u003c\/i\u003e12 x 16.5 inches (plate); overall: 21 x 25.5 inches.\u003cbr\u003eColor aquatint and drypoint, artist’s proof, signed in pencil lower margin, framed. In fine condition, with a slight toning in the wide margins.  \u003cspan\u003eA very good impression of this scarce, early aquatint. Ginestet\/Pouillon 102.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"space-top space-bottom\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"In the early years of the century jazz and ragtime manifested themselves in the guise of the cakewalk and other dances. This was a dance which offset balance in an analogical way to the offsetting of pulse by syncopation. It 'unhinged' the body. The attraction of dance as a subject for modern art was in great part a consequence of the fact that it amounted to a direct manifestation of the visualization of jazz and new rhythms more generally. It is no accident that Stravinsky's the Rite of Spring was a ballet. The movements of the body were a visual analogue for the abstract rhythms and gestures of the music. This is an important notion, that the rhythm was felt and played out in the body, increasing its potency as an amplification of the syncopation; the sound doubled in sight. But even when 'silent', the visual depiction provides evidence of the materialization of new rhythms through the disclosure of the body. This can be seen clearly in Marcel [Duchamp's] older brother Jacques Villon's print \u003cem\u003eLe cake-walk des petites filles\u003c\/em\u003e' of 1904, an image of his young cousins dancing the cakewalk. Like Toulouse-Lautrec, Villon produced a great many posters of contemporary forms of entertainment.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"The influence of their grandfather Emile Nicolle, an etcher of architectural views, was important, and Villon became a print-maker of considerable significance (for Marcel it was mainly an issue of gaining les ouvriers d'art as mentioned). This print, while one of over 175 intaglio plates he produced between 1899 and 1910, of Parisian society at the turn of the century, also demonstrates the extent to which contemporary experiences penetrated the intimacy of the domestic everyday. The young girls pivot in answer to each other, with serious expressions, eyes fixed up and down, prancing in a homely space of green carpet and floral wallpaper. Given the primitivist assumption...that black culture was both closer to nature and represented a more innocent, unconscious, unschooled form of expression, it was not uncommon to see such a dance equated with children. Debussy composed his 'Gollywog's cakewalk' in his 'Children's Corner' for his daughter around the same time (1908).  Nevertheless, formally, the balance provided between the counterpoint of the two girls, the seriousness of their expressions, and the flat planes of green and unprinted paper, do articulate the power of an asymmetrical rocking rhythm, although the high level of finish in relation to their heads presents a disparity between mind and body; a discontinuity that might occur to a disinterested Cartesian watching a cakewalk.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"In contradistinction to this childish image (but no less strong, underlining the usual paradoxical assumptions of racism), is the belief that such new dance moves originated from supposed Bacchic or instinctual movement. In the previous chapter I mentioned the belief that cakewalk dances had 'no rules', they were simply performed 'spontaneously', and fed by a 'fundamental\/sexual' impulse. It should not be surprising that dance in general features as a common subject of artists around this time: a subject that represents elemental expression. Even when they are not directly painting such dances as the cakewalk, the same primitivism is often invoked.\" (Simon Shaw-Miller, \"Improvisation: Orphic Art in the Age of Jazz,\" p. 62-63)\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Schubertiade Music and Arts","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46093693649055,"sku":"18762","price":6500.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0512\/4826\/7423\/files\/RaymondMorettiPortraitofaPianist23710aa_ab4890d7-9784-4196-9c8a-0f817ea6ce8e.jpg?v=1739893411","url":"https:\/\/www.schubertiademusic.com\/products\/18762-villon-jacques-le-cake-walk-des-petites-filles-1904","provider":"Schubertiade Music and Arts","version":"1.0","type":"link"}