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"Burlesque and Cubist Composition", Two-Sided Painting by William L'Engle

About the Item

Brilliant and memorable, this painting has two sides: a scene of nude burlesque dancers, ornamented in red feathers and red shoes on one side, and on the other, a highly abstract, Cubist composition in tones of taupe, wine, pale green and black. The artist was William L'Engle, and clearly he considered the Cubist composition more important, because it has a hand-painted border and is monogrammed. L'Engle was a towering figure in the Provincetown art colony, and was extremely well connected to America's artistic elite, starting with his trip to Europe as a young man with Waldo Pierce and George Biddle. Over time, William and his life Lucy became close to a wide range of important figures in painting, theater and the arts, including Charles Hawthorne, Eugene O'Neill, Gerrit Beneker, John Dos Passos, Edmund Wilson and Mary McCarthy, William and Marguerite Zorach, Edna St. Vincent-Millay, Charles Demuth, Childe Hassam, George Biddle, Edwin Dickinson, Blanche Lazzell, Ross Moffett, Karl Knaths and Agnes Weinrich. The painting is watercolor and ink on textured watercolor paper. Dimensions include the matte.
  • Creator:
    William L'Engle (Painter)
  • Dimensions:
    Height: 17.25 in (43.82 cm)Width: 12.75 in (32.39 cm)Depth: 0.1 in (2.54 mm)
  • Style:
    Art Deco (Of the Period)
  • Materials and Techniques:
  • Place of Origin:
  • Period:
  • Date of Manufacture:
    Circa 1920s
  • Condition:
    Overall excellent; some spotting and darkening of matte.
  • Seller Location:
    Philadelphia, PA
  • Reference Number:
    1stDibs: LU865140718562

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