Page 43 - Studio International - January 1966

The sinuous lines and spirals of the vegetable world
found a living prototype in a dancer who was an
immediate success from the moment of her arrival in
Paris from America in 1892. Löie Fuller had abandoned
the conventional tutu and blocked shoes of the
classical ballet in favour of pleated chiffon dresses and
long trailing draperies, which she manipulated in
elaborate lighting arrangements of her own devising ;
and by means of coloured spotlights, glass floors lit
from below, and projected backgrounds, devices which
are commonplace now but which were at that time
startling innovations, she transformed herself into a
butterfly, a will-o'-the-wisp or a flame. Raoul Larche's
gilded bronze statuette of her, which most appropriately
incorporates an electric-light bulb, vividly reproduces
the swirling movements of her performance, the outlines
of her body half-concealed by diaphanous draperies,
the lightness of which is beautifully interpreted in
metal. Larche made several versions of this statuette
and all capture the ethereal quality of her dancing,
which was the inspiration for other artists such as
Pierre Roche, who designed the theatre built for her as
part of the Paris Exhibition of 1900, and Jules Chéret,
who designed some of his most striking posters for her.
The painting 'Danseuse' by Hippolyte Lucas is
probably a portrait of Löie Fuller—we know from the
Chéret posters that she. had red hair and the painting
bears a resemblance to contemporary photographs of
her. Lucas, in addition to murals at the 1900 Exhibition,
worked on paintings for the Bourse in Paris and for the
Casino at Monte Carlo.
The bronze statuette of a dancer by Flamand resembles
Ormulu figure of
Löie Fuller the dancer
with electric-light fitting an orchid or some exotic flower, an effect heightened by
Signed Raoul Larche the greenish patina of the bronze.
Height 13 in.
The decline of the Art Nouveau style followed swiftly
after the climax of the 1900 Paris Exhibition. Its success
led to such an increased demand for products in
'modern style' that an inevitable commercialisation
with a lowered standard of design and craftsmanship
could already be seen in the exhibits at the 1902 Turin
Exhibition. By 1905 the style had almost disappeared,
but artists and designers had felt the liberating in-
fluence and realised that revivals of past styles could no
longer be a basis for an expression of the age in which
they lived. n