Nicholas Gysis

Private Collection, United Kingdom;
thence by descent to the present owner

The canvas has been re-lined. Apart from two areas of retouching in the trees in the upper right, and some scattered spots of retouching, mainly along the edges, this work is in good condition, and is ready to hang.
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NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

With its open brushwork and ethereal quality, Dance of the Nymphs represents the change in Gysis' style from his earlier precisely-drawn genre paintings to his adoption of a Symbolist style which swept through Europe during the late nineteenth century. His change in style was paralleled with his increasing interest in mythological and allegorical subjects. The nymphs here are engaged in an 'ecstatic and liberating dance' which for Marina Lambraki-Plaka characterises the Symbolist movement more generally. Gysis' loose handling of the brush evokes the freedom of the nymphs' dance; their movement away from the viewer lending the scene a dream-like aspect.

As in many of Gysis' most powerful Symbolist works, vivid, firey reds stand out from a darker background, especially the red of the central nymph's dress and the flower in her hair, echoed by the even-more vibrant flowers to her right, and made more intense by the pallor of her back.

In allying himself to Symbolism from the mid-1870s and 1880s, Gysis was again in step with the artistic spirit of Munich, his adopted town, a spirit which would later give birth to the avant garde movement Jugendstil.