Эль Халео

John Singer Sargent was still in his twenties and making his name in Paris when he showed this at the Salon of 1882, and it became his greatest success there. Three years earlier he had spent five months traveling through Spain, filling sketchbooks with the costumes and the theatrical style of Romani dance. Back in his studio he built a canvas nearly the size of a stage. A dancer leans back mid-step under a raking light while the guitarists behind her drop into shadow, one hand blurred in motion. The title, El Jaleo, is the name of a dance from Jerez and also plain Spanish for a racket or commotion. Decades later Isabella Stewart Gardner built a special alcove for it in her Boston museum, framed by a Moorish arch.