Girl Dancing

In her statuettes of solitary female figures, Vonnoh explored the rhythm of movement and the play of drapery over forms. "Girl Dancing" presents a fashionable young woman in a high-waisted gown stepping forward in a bowing posture. This dancer may possibly be part of a quadrille, a dance popular in the nineteenth century that was performed by couples in a square formation. The statuette is in keeping with the genteel turn-of-the century expectation that well-bred women occupy themselves by reading, playing music, or dancing.

Credit: Rogers Fund, 1906