Provenance
Commissioned by François Jules Duvaucel [1672-1739] for a salon in the Château de La Norville, France; remained in the château through successive owners until sometime between 1901 and 1906; (Fauché, Paris), by 1907;[1] purchased 1922 through (André Carlhian, Paris) by Dr. Alexander Hamilton Rice [1875-1956] and his wife, Eleanor Elkins Widener Rice [1861-1937], for the dining room of their Fifth Avenue manion, New York;[2] by inheritance 1956 to Mrs. Rice's children, George D. Widener, Jr. [1889-1971] and Eleanor Widener Dixon [1891-1966, Mrs. Fitz Eugene Dixon]; gift 1957 to NGA.
[1] The history of the decoration of the Château de La Norville is thoroughly described by Bruno Pons, _Grands décors français, 1650-1800: reconstitués en Angleterre, aux Etats-Unis, en Amérique du Sud et en France_, Dijon, 1995: 221-426. See also Abbé A.E. Genty, _Histoire de la Norville et de sa seigneurie_, Brussels and Geneva, 1885: 112-129.
[2] Mrs. Rice was born Eleonor Elkins in Philadelphia. Her first husband was George Dunton Widener, who perished with their elder son, Harry, in the sinking of the _Titanic_ in 1912. She married Dr. Alexander Hamilton Rice in 1915. Her two other children with Widener inherited the New York residence after Dr. Rice's death.
Records of the Carlhian firm are in the Special Collections of the Research Library at the Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, accession no. 930092. Copies of documents referring to the wall paneling are in the NGA curatorial files; see in particular the letter of 6 July 1923, from André Carlhian to Mrs. Rice, in which he tells her that "the Pineau boiserie which you bought from Fauché comes from the Chateau de la Norville, near Arpajon - about 20 miles from Paris." Both the six Huet paintings (NGA 1957.7.1-6) and the paneling (_boiserie_) by Pineau were given to the National Gallery of Art; the latter is NGA 1957.7.7.
Accession Number
1957.7.2
Medium
oil on canvas
Dimensions
overall: 92.1 x 144.4 cm (36 1/4 x 56 7/8 in.)
Classification
Painting
Credit Line
Gift of George D. Widener and Eleanor Widener Dixon
Tags
Painting Baroque (1600–1750) Oil Painting Canvas French
Background & Context
Background Story
The Dance is the most physically exuberant of Huet's singerie series, depicting monkeys in the elaborate poses of 18th-century social dance. Where The Concert satirized musical performance, The Dance satirizes the stylized movements of courtly dancing — the minuets, courantes, and gavottes that were the social glue of aristocratic life. Huet's monkeys execute these steps with the same rigid formality that human dancers maintained, their animal bodies contorted into positions that are simultaneously ridiculous and recognizable. The painting is funny, but its humor has a sharp edge.
Cultural Impact
Dance was the central social ritual of the French aristocracy, and Huet's monkeys dancing the minuet constitute a direct commentary on the artificiality of aristocratic social codes. The Rococo period was the age of the ballet, the masquerade, and the formal ball — occasions where aristocrats performed their social status through stylized movement. Huet's monkeys perform the same movements, revealing them as performances rather than natural behaviors.
Why It Matters
The Dance is Huet's most physical satire: monkeys performing the aristocratic rituals that defined 18th-century social life. The humor comes from the collision of animal bodies and human formality — and the realization that the formality is a performance, whether the performer is a monkey or a duc.
