This dramatic painting depicts ballet dancers performing, from the perspective of someone standing backstage. The subject matter and unique perspective is likely taken from Zinkeisen’s time as a set and costume designer, as this would have been a view that she was all too familiar with. The lighting is arguably the most masterful element of this painting - the dramatic stage lights cast the ballet dancers in extreme brightness and darkness. The lights cause the dresses to shine a brilliant white, whilst the shadows render the forms of the dancers vaguely visible under their skirts, suggesting the translucency of the dress fabric. The defined beams of light also illuminate a muted but sumptuous theatre setting, but ensure that the spotlight - to pardon the pun - remains firmly on the beautiful, poised ballet dancers.
Doris Clare Zinkeisen
Doris Zinkeisen was a British painter, stage-set and costume designer, writer and equestrian champion. She was a familiar figure in the artistic world from the 1920s onwards. Her realist style led to her success as a painter of society portraits, horse paintings, and murals for the RMS Queen Mary (1935) and RMS Queen Elizabeth (1940). She also produced posters for several railway companies. She is perhaps best known for her numerous stage designs that she produced during the 1920s and the 1930s. During the Second World War, she worked for the St John Ambulance Brigade, and as a war artist made drawings of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp after its liberation, which are held in the Imperial War Museum.
