Dancing Girl, 1871
Oil on canvas, 39 x 19 3/8"
Gift of Barbara B. Millhouse, 1984.2.10

Elihu Vedder was born in New York, but spent most of his life living as an expatriate in Europe.  He studied in Paris and then settled in Italy.  In Europe, Vedder was influenced by a growing movement in art called orientalism.  Orientalism was a tendency for artists to favor subjects set in the Middle East or North Africa, or to include exotic details from those areas in their paintings.  In the 19th century, as Europe became more involved politically in the Near East and the means of traveling to those areas improved, Western artists began visiting the region in greater numbers and paying closer attention to its distinctive features.  They found those features both aesthetically interesting and seductive.  Harem scenes were a popular manifestation of the orientalist strain, giving artists the opportunity to explore a subject that was sensual, erotic, and visually appealing.  In Vedder's painting, the dancer is beautiful and the setting is luxurious, with colorful carpets and tapestries.  The model is dressed in a rich costume with vaguely Turkish details (the leggings and the slippers).  Both the setting and the costume communicate sensuality, and beauty.  But Vedder includes one detail that makes this painting a "vanitas" piece, a type of painting concerned with the fragility of life and the futility of the pursuit of pleasure in the face of the inevitability of death.  In this painting, Vedder includes a wheel of fortune with an arrow pointing toward a skull next to his dancing girl, reminding the viewer that such things as youth and beauty are fleeting.