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ONLINECOLLECTION

Scaled-down poster Ruby Betteley, October 1912

Leopold Museum,
Vienna © Estate of Emil Pirchan,
Steffan/Pabst Collection,
Zurich
Color lithograph on paper
29×22 cm

Artists

  • Emil Pirchan

    (Brno 1884–1957 Vienna)

Unfortunately not on display at the moment
We know very little about the Englishwoman Ruby Betteley. She was a principle dancer, who for several years performed and taught in Germany. At least for certain periods she adopted the “Serpentine Dances”, using colorful, swaying veils, which Loïe Fuller (1862–1928) had been performing since 1893 to great international success. Much like Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1864–1901) 20 years before him, Emil Pirchan (1884–1957) used the large surface area and amorphous appearance of the dance dress to radicalize his artistic expression. The costumes for the advertized dance event were also designed by Pirchan, but can no longer be reconstructed today.

Object data

Artist/author
  • Emil Pirchan
Title
Scaled-down poster Ruby Betteley
Date
October 1912
Category
Graphic work
Material​/technique
Color lithograph on paper
Dimensions
29×22 cm
Credit line
Leopold Museum, Vienna, Inv. 6440, donation Collection Steffan/Pabst
Inventory access
Accession 2019 2020
Keywords

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Provenance

Provenance research
Leopold Museum i

Nachlass Emil Pirchan, Zürich (1957);
Dr. Beat Steffan, Zürich (um 2010-2020); (1)
Leopold Museum-Privatstiftung, Wien (seit 2020). (2)

  1. Bild / Ruhrgebiet vom 22.02.2019: Große Pirchan-Austellung in Essen. Dieser Kunstschatz lag auf dem Dachboden, https://emilpirchan.com/presse/ (Abruf: 16.05.2022)
  2. Archiv des Leopold Museums, Schenkungsvertrag vom 06.02.2020 und Übergabebestätigung vom 10.06.2020

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