Explore the Hoop Dancers and imaginary workshops of this artwork.
Gerome would subsequently create and sell numerous copies of the Hoop Dancer figurine held by his Tanagra, making the Hoop Dancer the modern-day equivalent of a Tanagra figurine. "Here the artist is not so much breathing life into painted or sculpted flesh as reinventing for the modern age the mass-produced figurines of antiquity."In 1893, Gérôme created two paintings of imaginary Tanagra workshops. Although Gérôme opposed the admission of female art students to the École des Beaux-Arts, both of these paintings depict a female artist who is painting copies of Gérôme's Hoop Dancer figurine (a modern anachronism retrojected back in time). These Hoop Dancers are offered for sale, along with other figurines, to browsing art-lovers (all female) who themselves resemble Tanagra figurines. In one of these paintings a smaller version of Gérôme's Tanagra presides over the sales counter, holding a Hoop Dancer in her hand. This Tanagra is a painting of a statue holding a statue. Also in this painting, the young artisan is busy "colouring an edition of 12 Hoop Dancers in various brilliant hues—a tongue-in-cheek advertisement, perhaps, made to promote the figurines that he [Gérôme] was offering for sale in two different sizes and a variety of media through his dealer and father-in-law Adolphe Goupil. The Hoop Dancer would be Gérôme’s most popular and widely reproduced sculpture."
Tanagra figurines Tanagra figurine École des Beaux-Arts Tanagra Adolphe Goupil