The Dance of Anitra

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The Dance of Anitra
Dance of Anitra by Edith Maryon - Dreweatts 1.jpg
Artist Edith Maryon
YearFebruary 1909 (1909-02)
MediumBronze
Dimensions53 cm (21 in) tall; 19.5 cm × 16 cm (7.7 in × 6.3 in) wide (base)

The Dance of Anitra is a 1909 bronze statuette by the English artist Edith Maryon. The work depicts the Canadian dancer Maud Allan performing Anitra's Dance from Peer Gynt , a play by Henrik Ibsen that was set to music by Edvard Grieg. Maryon created the work at the height of Allan's fame, known as her "Conquest of London": eighteen months of shows at the Palace Theatre, during which time Allan emerged as a fashion icon, sex symbol, and controversial figure.

Contents

The statuette is made of bronze and stands 53 cm (21 in) tall. It captures Allan mid-dance, emphasizing her grace and movement as well as her sensuality. The scene it depicts takes place in the fourth act of the play's five, which follow Gynt as he is outcast from his Norwegian home and spends decades travelling abroad; posing as a prophet to a desert tribe in Morocco, he is enraptured by the dancing of Anitra, attempts to seduce her, and is swindled out of his gold. Grieg's music accompanying the dance was later combined into the first of two four-song suites that became some of his best-known compositions. Allan adapted the first Grieg suite, and with it Anitra's Dance, into her repertoire in February 1909, the same month that Maryon made the sculpture.

The Dance of Anitra is representative of Maryon's oeuvre from the middle of her career, which combined classical technique with symbolic expression, and belongs to a category of her works pairing emotional and spiritual aspects. It is one of two sculptures by Maryon depicting Allan, both made around the same time. It also presages Maryon's work on eurythmy figures a decade later, after she joined the Anthroposophy movement and became a close collaborator with Rudolf Steiner. Like The Dance of Anitra, these translated the grace and lightness of dance to the sculptural form.

The work was exhibited at the Royal Academy of Arts in the summer of 1909, and at the Walker Art Gallery in the autumn of 1910. Reviewers at the time praised the work for its charm and grace; one wrote that Maryon had "overcome the difficulty of pourtraying the poetry of motion". [1] [2] It was auctioned in 2025, attributed to a private collection in Wiltshire. The auction house, Dreweatts, noted it as one of the few works by Maryon known to survive in private hands.

Background

Edith Maryon

Edith Maryon Edith Maryon.jpg
Edith Maryon

Edith Maryon was born in London on 9 February 1872. [3] [4] She was educated there and in Geneva, then studied art upon her return, including at the Royal College of Art. [5] Between 1899 and 1912, when Maryon was approximately 27 to 40 years old and living in London, she exhibited numerous works, particularly at the Royal Academy of Arts and the Walker Art Gallery; with the former exhibition held during the summer and the latter during the autumn, many of her works were exhibited at both. [6] These works, according to her biographer Rex Raab, tended to fall into five categories: first, the world of external physical being; second, references to the elemental world; third, motifs from the spiritual world; fourth, spiritual–allegorical works; and fifth, a combination of emotional and spiritual aspects. [7] The shift in focus away from the elemental world and towards the spiritual, he observed, appears to have taken place around 1905 to 1907. [8] Maryon exhibited little if at all after 1912. [9]

Maryon was interested in the esoteric at least as early as 1909, and in 1912 visited the anthroposophist Rudolf Steiner for the first time, in Germany. [10] [11] [12] [13] In 1914, she travelled to Dornach—the place where Steiner had resolved to center the anthroposophical movement, and build the Goetheanum as its central structure. [14] [15] [16] Over the next decade, until her death in 1924, Maryon rarely left Dornach. [17] [18] [19] She became a close collaborator of Steiner; among other works contributions while there, she was heavily involved in creating both the monumental sculpture The Representative of Humanity , and the eurythmy figures depicting an anthroposophical form of dance. [20]

Peer Gynt

Anitra's Dance takes place in Act IV of Henrik Ibsen's 1867 play Peer Gynt , set to music by Edvard Grieg. [21] The five-act play chronicles the journey of its titular character from the Norwegian mountains to far-flung places including the North African desert and Panama, and back. [22]

Play

Henrik Klausen [no] as Peer Gynt in 1876, likely while portraying a prophet in Act IV Henrik Klausen som Peer Gynt - 1876 - Ernst Emil Aubert - Oslo Museum - TM.T01441 (cropped).jpg
Henrik Klausen  [ no ] as Peer Gynt in 1876, likely while portraying a prophet in Act IV

The first three acts of Peer Gynt trace his progress from liar and layabout to outcast. [23] After running away with Ingrid, an engaged heiress who prefers him, he spurns her entreaties the next morning, saying he was merely "hot for a girl" and truly fancies another, Solveig. [24] The parish forms a mob to set out and kill Gynt. [25] He builds a cabin hidden in the woods, before declaring that he shall set out "To the sea" and "further still". [26]

27 February 1909 sketch for The Graphic, showing Allan performing Anitra's Dance 1909.02.27 - The Graphic - Maud Allan as Anitra.jpg
27 February 1909 sketch for The Graphic , showing Allan performing Anitra's Dance

Act IV opens years later, with Gynt a handsome and wealthy middle-aged gentleman. [28] He is now along the south-west coast of Morocco, and enjoying dinner with four travel companions taken aboard his steam yacht in Gibraltar. [29] Gynt regales his companions with his life's story: In his telling, he was betrothed to a woman "of royal blood", but objected to her father's request that he take a title in order to marry her. [30] He left, made his fortune trading slaves to the Carolinas, and heathen images to China, and then—questioning the morality of these enterprises—used "The last cargo of flesh" to open his own plantation, and operated a dual trade in China, where he sold idols to non-Christians, and goods to Christian missionaries that they then used to barter away the idols. [31] Gynt's companions set about to rob him and commandeer his yacht. [32] Gold and yacht gone, Gynt heads into the desert, where he discovers a richly caparisoned horse, jewels, and sacred robes, that had been stolen from a Moorish emperor and then abandoned. [33]

Newly ornamented in imperial regalia, Gynt is taken as a prophet by a desert tribe. [34] Girls dance in his honour and sing his praises; Anitra is among them, and comes to Gynt's tent afterwards. [35] In what becomes Anitra's Dance, [36] Gynt commands her and the others to dance for him: "Dance for me, women! The prophet wants to forget the past." [37] Gynt is enamoured with Anitra, offering a monologue on her looks, and attempts to seduce her. [38] She, in turn, convinces him to gift his jewels to her. [38] When Gynt attempts to ride away with her on his horse, she convinces him to dismount and lead the horse, then hand her his "heavy bag" of gold to save him the effort of carrying it—then gallops back to her oasis. [39] The act closes with Gynt assessing his life and options, deciding to go forward a historian, and heading to Egypt. [40]

Music

Maud Allan

Maud Allan Maud Allan.jpg
Maud Allan

Maud Allan was born in Toronto on 27 August 1873. [52] [53] By 1906, she began to rise to fame as a dancer with her debut in Vienna of The Vision of Salome, a rendition of the Dance of the Seven Veils performed by Salome before the beheading of John the Baptist. [54] [55] The performances were both successful and controversial—the latter helping to feed the former—in no small part due to the fact that Allan's costume only minimally covered her breasts. [56]

Mass-market porcelain of Allan as Salome, likely c. 1908-1909 Maud Allan Salome porcelain figurine - Deker Auctions 1.jpg
Mass-market porcelain of Allan as Salome, likely c. 1908–1909

Allan's break came when she was invited to dance before King Edward VII in September 1907. [57] The performance facilitated an introduction to Alfred Butt, the manager of London's Palace Theatre, which in turn facilitated a two-week residency there. [58] [59] Allan was an overnight success; two weeks became eighteen months. [60] [59] At the height of her "Conquest of London", as it was known, Allan broke box-office records, made £250 (equivalent to £32,000in 2023) a week from the Palace, and commanded the same price for her many private recitals. [61] She was at ease with and embraced by society, became both a fashion icon and a sex symbol, and contributed to an outbreak of "Salomania". [62] Her private life, including liaisons with the Second Duke of Westminster and the Prime Minister's wife Margot Asquith, also became the subject of much gossip, inspiring two romans à clef : Salome and the Head , by E. Nesbit, and the anonymous and pornographic Maudie. [63] [59]

Another product of Allan's fame was the proliferation of flower-pot statuettes of her sold at the gift shops along Bond Street. [61] [64] Many of these were made in porcelain by German manufacturers, such as Kister and Galluba & Hofmann. [65] They also tended to depict her most striking poses of her most famous role, Salome; these often mirrored the poses seen on postcards of Allan, for which she had been photographed. [66] [65]

In October 1908, Allan both performed for her 250th time at the Palace and—possibly due to exhaustion—suffered a bad fall on stage. [67] [68] She returned to stage on 12 February 1909. [69] [68] [70] She used her return to introduce new dances into her set, including the first Peer Gynt suite and, with it, Anitra's Dance. [68] [70] Newspapers at the time variously stated that "Anitra's dance [was] wonderfully captivating"; [70] "'Anitra's Dance' was the most charming of the [Peer Gynt] sections"; [71] "the grace and vivacity of Anitra's dance were charming, but they were not in harmony with the Eastern colour of the music"; [72] and "Anitra's Dance is delicious, the very spirit of girlish joy". [73] Allan's run at the Palace finally ended in mid-November 1909. [74] [75]

Description

The sculpture as photographed in The Studio and The International Studio in 1911 Edith Maryon - La danse d'Anitra.jpg
The sculpture as photographed in The Studio and The International Studio in 1911

The sculpture is made of bronze. [76] [77] [78] [79] [80] It is 53 cm (21 in) tall and, at the base, measures 19.5 cm × 16 cm (7.7 in × 6.3 in). [78] [79] "Dance of Anitra" and "Maud Allan" are both spelt in relief on the sides of the base. [78] [79] The base is signed by Maryon, and inscribed "Feb 1909". [78] [79]

The work depicts Allan performing Anitra's dance from Peer Gynt. [81] [78] [79] Allan is captured mid-dance; the bronze, as the auction house Dreweatts wrote, captures her "charisma, mysticism, movement and sensual stage performance" in the midst of "the seductive dance which emphasises the grace and beauty of Anitra". [78] [79]

Themes

The Passing of Winter--Miss Maud Allan as Spring (c. 1909) The Passing of Winter.jpg
The Passing of Winter—Miss Maud Allan as Spring (c. 1909)

According to Maryon's biographer Rex Raab, the sculpture represents a fifth-category work by Maryon, displaying a combination of emotional and spiritual aspects. [7] Another such example is Maryon's 1911 work Priestess of Isis. [7] As termed by Dreweatts, it represents Maryon's "distinctive sculptural style that combined classical technique with symbolic expression". [78] [79]

The Dance of Anitra is one of two works by Maryon depicting Maud Allan. [82] [83] The other, titled The Passing of Winter—Miss Maude Allan as Spring, was made around the same time and was perhaps larger; it was pictured in Academy Architecture in 1909, [82] [83] and exhibited at the Forty-first Autumn Exhibition at the Walker Art Gallery from 23 September 1911 to 6 January 1912, priced at £200 (equivalent to £25,000in 2023). [84] According to Dreweatts, while writing about The Dance of Anitra, "While there is little documentary evidence of their personal relationship, this intimate rendering indicates there was a close relationship or at the very least an understanding between the two women whilst simultaneously allowing an insight into the interplay of performance, presence and visual arts in early 20th century Britain." [78] [79]

The sculpture also presages Maryon's later eurythmy figures created for the Anthroposophy movement. [85] These had their genesis in a relief created by Maryon, perhaps in early 1919, that depicts Ilona Schubert  [ de ] performing a eurythmy solo to Goethe's poem Die Spröde. [86] The work is thematically similar to The Dance of Anitra, displaying what Raab terms the "grace and lightness" (German : Grazie und Leichtigkeit) of the dancer. [86] It also prompted Maryon to look for ways to represent eurythmy gestures in art; she undertook these efforts from 1919 until early 1922 in collaboration with Steiner, beginning with three-dimensional models and eventually settling on two-dimensional wooden designs. [87] [88]

Provenance

Meditation (1910), a small bronze exhibited alongside The Dance of Anitra Edith Maryon - Meditation.jpg
Meditation (1910), a small bronze exhibited alongside The Dance of Anitra

Maryon created The Dance of Anitra in February 1909. [79] It was displayed at the 141st Exhibition of the Royal Academy of Arts that year, held at Burlington House from 3 May to 2 August. [89] [90] [91] [80] [92] A review in The Era termed the work "graceful", [90] while The Gentlewoman called it a work "of high merit". [93] A column published in the Acton Gazette and Middlesex County Times, meanwhile, wrote that Maryon had "overcome the difficulty of pourtraying the poetry of motion". [1] [2] [note 1] Other publications mentioning the work included Lloyd's Weekly News , [94] and The Jewelers' Circular. [91] Maryon displayed no other works at this exhibition. [95]

The following year, the statuette was displayed at the Fortieth Autumn Exhibition at the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool from 19 September 1910 to 7 January 1911. [77] [96] [97] It was priced at £12 12s (equivalent to £1,600in 2023), although it did not sell during the exhibition. [77] The Studio and its American counterpart The International Studio printed a photograph of the statuette, with Henry Bloomfield Bare calling it a work "of charm and interest". [96] [97] Maryon also displayed four other works at the exhibition: Fairy Luck, Meditation, To the Witches' Revels, and Miss Ruth Franklin. [98]

On 11 September 2025, the statuette was auctioned by Dreweatts, [78] attributed to a private collection in Wiltshire. [79] The auction house noted it as one of the few works by Maryon known to survive in private hands. [78] [79] It sold for £4,200, against an estimate of £2,000–3,000, [79] in addition to a 27% buyer's premium. [99]

Notes

  1. ↑ The phrase was frequently used in reference to Allan, so much so that The Graphic wrote in February 1909 that "Everyone who cannot think of anything else to say talks about the poetry of motion in connection with Miss Allan; and there is some excuse for the hackneyed phrase." [27]

References

  1. 1 2 Acton Gazette 1909.
  2. 1 2 Middlesex County Times 1909.
  3. ↑ Raab 1993, p. 21.
  4. ↑ Maryon 1895, p. 10.
  5. ↑ Raab 1993, pp. 23, 26–28.
  6. ↑ Raab 1993, pp. 40–41, 52–53.
  7. 1 2 3 Raab 1993, pp. 41–42.
  8. ↑ Raab 1993, p. 42.
  9. ↑ Raab 1993, pp. 40–41.
  10. ↑ Raab 1993, pp. 55, 91–93.
  11. ↑ Selg 2006, pp. 28–30.
  12. ↑ Selg 2022, pp. 20–23.
  13. ↑ Steiner 1990, pp. 11–12.
  14. ↑ Raab 1993, pp. 53, 96, 102–114.
  15. ↑ Selg 2006, pp. 40–55.
  16. ↑ Selg 2022, pp. 32–46.
  17. ↑ Raab 1993, pp. 117–124, 132.
  18. ↑ Selg 2006, pp. 58–61.
  19. ↑ Selg 2022, pp. 49–52.
  20. ↑ Raab 1993, pp. 137–180, 203–206, 212–213, 268–287.
  21. ↑ Ibsen 1972, p. 348.
  22. ↑ Ibsen 1972.
  23. ↑ Ibsen 1972, pp. 255–324.
  24. ↑ Ibsen 1972, pp. 262–285.
  25. ↑ Ibsen 1972, pp. 285–288.
  26. ↑ Ibsen 1972, pp. 307–308, 312–324.
  27. 1 2 The Graphic 1909.
  28. ↑ Ibsen 1972, p. 323.
  29. ↑ Ibsen 1972, pp. 325–333.
  30. ↑ Ibsen 1972, pp. 325–327.
  31. ↑ Ibsen 1972, pp. 326–331.
  32. ↑ Ibsen 1972, pp. 331–334.
  33. ↑ Ibsen 1972, pp. 338–345.
  34. ↑ Ibsen 1972, pp. 346–347.
  35. ↑ Ibsen 1972, pp. 346–348.
  36. 1 2 Halvorsen 1908, p. 193.
  37. ↑ Ibsen 1972, pp. 347–348.
  38. 1 2 Ibsen 1972, pp. 348–357.
  39. ↑ Ibsen 1972, pp. 355–357.
  40. ↑ Ibsen 1972, pp. 357–374.
  41. ↑ Ibsen 1972, pp. 453–454, 496–498, 502.
  42. ↑ Ibsen 1972, p. 502.
  43. ↑ Ibsen 1972, pp. 502–504.
  44. ↑ Ibsen 1972, pp. 497, 502–503.
  45. ↑ Ibsen 1972, pp. 497–499.
  46. 1 2 Finck 1910, pp. 175–179.
  47. ↑ Halvorsen 1908, p. 4.
  48. ↑ Finck 1910, pp. 172–173.
  49. ↑ Finck 1910, pp. 170–171.
  50. 1 2 Finck 1910, pp. 63, 168–171.
  51. ↑ Horton 1945, pp. 69–70, 204.
  52. ↑ Pritchard 2018.
  53. ↑ Cherniavsky 1998, p. 7.
  54. ↑ Cherniavsky 1991, pp. 119–124, 140–144.
  55. ↑ Cherniavsky 1998, pp. 7–8.
  56. ↑ Cherniavsky 1991, pp. 140–154.
  57. ↑ Cherniavsky 1991, pp. 149–154.
  58. ↑ Cherniavsky 1991, pp. 154, 160–163.
  59. 1 2 3 Cherniavsky 1998, p. 8.
  60. ↑ Cherniavsky 1991, pp. 163–183.
  61. 1 2 Cherniavsky 1991, pp. 173–174.
  62. ↑ Cherniavsky 1991, pp. 166–167, 173–175, 192, 262.
  63. ↑ Cherniavsky 1991, pp. 175–183.
  64. ↑ Weintraub 2005, p. 138.
  65. 1 2 Weintraub 2005, pp. 137–140.
  66. ↑ Cherniavsky 1991, p. 174.
  67. ↑ Cherniavsky 1991, pp. 173, 177 & n.18.
  68. 1 2 3 Cherniavsky 1998, p. 58.
  69. ↑ Cherniavsky 1991, pp. 173 & n.18.
  70. 1 2 3 The Daily Telegraph 1909.
  71. ↑ The Times 1909.
  72. ↑ The Manchester Guardian 1909.
  73. ↑ The Toronto Star 1909.
  74. ↑ Cherniavsky 1991, p. 190.
  75. ↑ Cherniavsky 1998, p. 65.
  76. ↑ Royal Academy of Arts 1909, p. 62.
  77. 1 2 3 Fortieth Autumn Exhibition Catalogue 1910, p. 121.
  78. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Dreweatts catalogue 2025, p. 293.
  79. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Dreweatts 2025.
  80. 1 2 Steiner 1990, p. 254.
  81. ↑ Raab 1993, pp. 41 & n.15.
  82. 1 2 Koch 1909, p. 91.
  83. 1 2 Koch 1912, p. 11.
  84. ↑ Forty-first Autumn Exhibition Catalogue 1911, p. 116.
  85. ↑ Raab 1993, p. 270.
  86. 1 2 Raab 1993, pp. 268–270.
  87. ↑ Raab 1993, pp. 268–285.
  88. ↑ Steiner 1984, pp. 3–5.
  89. ↑ Royal Academy of Arts 1909, pp. 4, 6, 62, 74.
  90. 1 2 The Era 1909.
  91. 1 2 St. George 1909.
  92. ↑ Shaw 2018.
  93. ↑ The Gentlewoman 1909.
  94. ↑ Lloyd's Weekly News 1909.
  95. ↑ Royal Academy of Arts 1909, p. 74.
  96. 1 2 Bare 1911a, p. 231.
  97. 1 2 Bare 1911b, p. 231.
  98. ↑ Fortieth Autumn Exhibition Catalogue 1910, pp. 121, 125, 156.
  99. ↑ Dreweatts catalogue 2025, p. 2.

Bibliography

  • Translated into English as Selg, Peter (2022). Edith Maryon: Rudolf Steiner and the Sculpture of Christ in Dornach. Translated by Barton, Matthew. Forest Row: Temple Lodge Publishing. ISBN   978-1-912230-95-2.
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