Portrait of La Carmencita
Fine Arts
Inventory number
2018.3.27.4.FA.PA.1906.DEAuthor:
Bernhard ZICKENDRAHT (German, Bad Hersfeld 1854-1937 Berlin)Description
Three-quarter length presumed portrait of a Spanish dancer Carmen DAUSET Y MORENO (1868 - 1910) at the age of 38 and dressed in a black velvet dress with a broad neckline, the bodice is embroidered with blue and gold patterns, and with a small blue fishnet sleeves embellished with pompom. She holds a white rose in her left hand and a red flower in her hair.Born in Almeria in Andalusia, Carmen DAUSET Y MORENO takes dance lessons from the age of 7. In 1880, at the age of 12, she was already an artist who performed at the Cervantes Theater in Malaga. In 1882, she began tour throughout Spain, Portugal and even in France. She acquires the nickname of "Carmencita" (The little Carmen), and refers to the figure of the street dancer, gypsy fortune teller created through the beautiful Tsigane Zemfira in POUCHKINE's poem (1824), Quiterie (often spelled Kitri) in the ballet Don Quixote by PETIPA (1869) or Carmen in the opera by BIZET (1875) had helped to popularize throughout the world. Having become "La Perla de Sevilla", she performed at the Nouveau Cirque de Paris in 1887, then again during the Universal Exhibition of Paris in 1889. Noticed by the American artistic agent Kiralfy, she left for the United States where she performed in New York at the end of January 1891, in front of 8 000 people. Carmencita is hugely successful. She received a huge quantity of job offers that she decided to stay and live in the United States, At the beginning of December 1894, she decided to return to Europe, where she performed in February 1895 at the Palace Theater in London, at the end of 1895 at the Olympia in Paris, then periodically at the Théâtre des Nouvelles, while continuing these tours across Europe and the world like in 1901 in Rio de Janeiro and in 1903 at the Ambassadeurs in the Champs Elysées in Paris.
During her career she will serve as a model for the greatest painters like Singer SARGENT (1890), William MERRITT CHASE (1890) or James Carroll BECKWITH while inspiring less important like the Swedish Jenny NYSTROM. Her popularity will make her a bait figure for advertisements as well as for old fashion tobacco cut tobacco (1888 to 1890).
This portrait by the German artist Bernhard ZICKENDRAHT is a perfect illustration of the portraits of pretty young ladies who have earned him great popularity and which, for many, were reproduced in the form of postcards.
Materials
oil on canvaswood
Origin
1906 GermanyDimensions
Length : 54 cmHeight : 89 cm