Cancan
The women and men in this painting are enthusiastically dancing the chahut, or cancan, a risqué dance for that period, whereby the women lift their skirts and wave their legs in the air.
Fascinated by light
Despite the energetic subject, Le Chahut is not a fleeting scene from the Parisian nightlife, but a painstakingly deliberated painting. Seurat is fascinated by the effect of light and colour and purposefully seeks a systematic method by which to render this effect. He has captured the flamboyant dance in a strict system of countless minutely applied dots of paint, lines and colour combinations.
Upwards
The dancehall is bathed in warm colours and glowing artificial light. The dancers appear more archetypes than people of flesh and blood. They move in a rhythmic repetition. All the lines and movements in the painting are directed upwards to evoke the excited atmosphere of the dance and the music: the dancers’ legs, the conductor’s hand, the men’s moustaches, the corners of the ladies’ mouths and eyes, the neck of the double bass, even the flowers in the background.
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Helene Kröller-Müller wrote the following about the purchase of ‘Le Chahut’ by the French artist Georges Seurat: ‘When my youngest son saw it for the first time he said: “But mama, surely it’s not possible for you to buy a dance? Now, for the first time I no longer understand you.” Yes, how was it possible? But nonetheless I had to tell him that no painting had grabbed me in such a long time quite like this work by Seurat.’
Seurat completed ‘Le Chahut’ in 1890. For him it was an experiment, an attempt to apply his theories about colour in a painting. ‘Le Chahut’ not only had to provide a reflection of reality but must also exude atmosphere. According to Seurat a painting should show joy, peace or sorrow. In the case of ‘Le Chahut’ that is the jolly atmosphere of a Parisian café, which Seurat emphasises with light, warm colours and many ascending lines. Examples of these ascending lines are the dancers’ legs, the conductor’s neck and even mouths, eyebrows and moustaches.
Like the Impressionists, Seurat was fascinated by light and colour. But he found Impressionist art too emotional. As a reaction to this he developed a painting technique that displays none of the painter’s personality. He used only seven colours, which he applied in small dabs so close to one another that the eye blends them into forms and subtle tints. This Neo-Impressionist manner of painting is called pointillism, from the French word ‘point’ which means ‘dab’. Seurat was the founder of this technique and was personally active in spreading it among other artists. Following a visit from Seurat, Vincent van Gogh fell under the influence of his painting technique and choice of colours.
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