Forceful expressions of Lachaise’s abiding vision of exemplary human potential, these two drawings of nude performers exhibit the energized, swiftly-executed lines that characterize his late graphic style, and which nearly cover the large sheets of rag paper favored by him during the last years of his life. One drawing represents a muscular male acrobat whose face is enlivened with theatrical paint, the other, a voluptuous, goddess-like dancer dressed only in a cascading veil. The dancer’s awe-inspiring expression appears to reflect Lachaise’s enthusiastic response to an exhibition of Aztec, Mayan, and Incan art held at the Museum of Modern Art, New York City, in 1933, so as to suggest a date of around the time of that show for the execution of the drawing. Like many of Lachaise’s other drawings, these are not preliminary studies for other works, but were intended as enlightening and entertaining ends in themselves.

We are grateful to Virginia Budny, author of the forthcoming catalogue raisonnésponsored by the Lachaise Foundation, for her assistance in preparing the catalogue entry for this work.