Provenance
Estate of the artist, New York, until 1912. Franklin W. M Cutcheon, New York and Locust Valley, New York, by 1912-1936/37; to his great-nephew, Robert M. Ferguson (died 1984), New York, 1936/37; to his wife, Mrs. Robert M. Ferguson, New York, 1984-1989. Thomas Colville Fine Arts, Inc, New York and New Haven, Conn., 1989. Jordan-Volpe Gallery, New York, 1989. Private collection, from 1989; given to the Art Institute of Chicago, 2014.
Accession Number
223822
Medium
Watercolor and opaque watercolor, with pastel, on cream wove paper (left); watercolor and opaque watercolor on cream wove paper (center); watercolor and opaque watercolor, with touches of pastel, on cream wove paper (right), mounted overall to pulp board
Dimensions
Left: 35.9 × 31.5 cm (14 3/16 × 12 7/16 in.); Center: 35.2 × 26.4 cm (13 7/8 × 10 7/16 in.); Right: 34.4 × 26.5 cm (13 9/16 × 10 7/16 in.)
Classification
paper
Credit Line
Gift of Bud and Ellie Frank
Background & Context
Background Story
John La Farges Siva Dance: Triptych of Seated Single Figures from 1890-91 is a three-part watercolor and pastel that represents the artists engagement with Asian art and culture, a subject that deeply influenced both his stained glass design and his painting throughout his career. La Farge, who traveled to Japan with Henry Adams in 1886 and wrote extensively about Asian art, was one of the first American artists to treat non-Western artistic traditions as sources of serious study rather than exotic decoration, and the Siva Dance triptych exemplifies his approach to Asian subject matter as a vehicle for formal innovation rather than Orientalist fantasy. The three panels depict seated figures in poses that derive from Hindu iconography of the dancing Siva, the god whose cosmic dance creates and destroys the universe, but La Farge translates the multi-armed, serpentine forms of Indian sculpture into the simpler, more legible poses that suited his Western audience while preserving the sense of dynamic energy that distinguishes Siva from the more static deities of the Hindu pantheon. The watercolor and opaque watercolor medium, with touches of pastel, allows La Farge to create the rich, luminous colors that he had developed in his stained glass, translating the chromatic effects of opalescent glass into the medium of painting. The three-panel format of the triptych, which La Farge also used in his stained glass commissions, gives the composition a sense of ritual formality that is appropriate to its religious subject.
Cultural Impact
La Farges engagement with Asian art was among the most serious and informed of any American artist of the Gilded Age, and the Siva Dance triptych exemplifies his approach to non-Western subject matter as a source of formal innovation. His writings on Asian art influenced the development of American cultural attitudes toward Japan, India, and Southeast Asia.
Why It Matters
A three-part watercolor and pastel triptych by La Farge depicting seated figures in Siva dance poses from Hindu iconography, translating Asian artistic traditions into Western formal language with the chromatic richness of his stained glass innovations.
