Dancing Figure 1905

Auguste Rodin made this drawing, with pencil and watercolour, capturing a dancing figure in motion. I can almost see him working, rapidly sketching the dancer's pose, trying to capture the energy of the pose. It’s as if she’s suspended, caught between positions. I’m thinking about the challenge Rodin faced, trying to convey the feeling of movement on a static surface. It’s a universal issue for painters, and the choices Rodin makes are so interesting. Look at how the lines are light and almost tentative, conveying not just the shape of the dancer, but also, somehow, a sense of her shifting weight. And that restrained palette! The delicate washes of pink and peach feel so intimate and vulnerable, as if Rodin wanted to show the real person in this moment of dance. Painters are always in dialogue with each other, across time, borrowing, responding and pushing against what came before. They leave us these traces of ideas that continue to spark new ways of seeing and thinking.