Danseuse cambodgienne — étude en mouvement

This sheet belongs to the celebrated group of studies Rodin made around 1906 after encountering the dancers of the Cambodian Royal Ballet in Paris.

Among the thousands of drawings Rodin produced throughout his career, only around one hundred are associated with the Cambodian dancers, making this group a particularly concentrated and distinctive body of work.

In these drawings, Rodin abandons academic representation in favour of movement, balance and immediacy. Watercolour and graphite are reduced to a few essential lines and washes, allowing the body to emerge almost as a gesture in motion.

The work reflects Rodin’s fascination with dance and the expressive possibilities of the human figure during one of the most experimental periods of his work on paper.