Henri Matisse’s The Dance: The Hermitage, the Shchukin Staircase, and the Good Armchair on a Skateboard Diptych

Last updated: May 2026 · By Stanislav Arnautov · Berlin

Henri Matisse (1869–1954) is the painter who most consistently prioritised colour and graphic simplicity over representational accuracy — who said he wanted to paint “with the same freshness of feeling with which one sees and feels”, and who produced in The Dance one of the most graphically immediate and most formally radical compositions in the history of Western painting. The Dance’s three bold flat colours, its circular rhythm, and its complete absence of spatial depth or psychological complexity make it the most “design”-compatible classical painting in the DeckArts range. The original (first version) is at the State Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg. DeckArts Berlin from ~$230 diptych.

The Painting: Three Bold Colours and a Circle

The Dance I (La Danse, 1909–10, oil on canvas, 259.7 × 390.1 cm, State Hermitage Museum St Petersburg) depicts five nude figures arranged in a circle on an undefined ground plane. The palette is reduced to three flat colour areas: warm flesh (the figures), strong green (the ground), and strong blue (the sky). There is no modelling within the figure forms, no spatial depth, no atmospheric perspective, no cast shadows — the entire composition is graphic structure rather than representational illusion.

The five figures are in different stages of a circular dance: some reaching up toward their neighbours’ hands, one figure’s hands not quite touching those of the adjacent dancer, creating a moment of broken circuit that is the painting’s most discussed detail. The figure at the top of the circle is bent backward, creating the most dramatic pose; the figure at the bottom-left is most fully shown from the back. The composition’s circular rhythm is self-contained — the figures do not relate to any external space or viewer; they circle within themselves.

The specific art historical significance: The Dance is one of the earliest and most radical examples of graphic abstraction in Western painting that retains figuration. The figures are identifiably human, but the complete elimination of modelling, depth, spatial context, and individual characterisation moves the work toward pure chromatic and compositional rhythm — a direction that leads directly to abstract expressionism, colour field painting, and the entire post-war tradition of painting that prioritises formal properties over representational illusion.

Matisse’s Biography: Fauvism, Colour, and the Good Armchair

Henri-Émile-Benoît Matisse was born in 1869 in Le Cateau-Cambrésis, northern France, and died in 1954 in Nice, aged 84. He began studying law before turning to painting in his early twenties — he was given a paint box by his mother during a period of illness, and the encounter with colour painting transformed his life’s direction. He studied at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris under Gustave Moreau (who was a notably open-minded teacher) and developed through a series of stylistic phases — Impressionist, Neo-Impressionist, and then Fauvist.

Fauvism (from the French fauves, “wild beasts” — the term coined by critic Louis Vauxcelles after seeing the 1905 Salon d’Automne) was characterised by non-representational use of colour: colours applied for their expressive and compositional properties rather than for their correspondence to observed natural colour. Matisse was the central figure of the Fauvist movement, which lasted approximately 1904–1908 before its participants moved in different directions. The Fauvist period produced some of Matisse’s most celebrated works and established the foundations for The Dance’s radical colour programme.

Matisse’s famous statement about the purpose of his art (from “Notes of a Painter”, La Grande Revue, 1908): “What I dream of is an art of balance, of purity and serenity, devoid of troubling or depressing subject matter — a soothing, calming influence on the mind, something like a good armchair which provides relaxation from physical fatigue.” The good armchair statement is the most cited definition of Matisse’s programme and the most direct statement of his domestic art ambition: the painting should be a restful, restorative presence in a domestic room, not a troubling or demanding one.

This statement is also the reason The Dance is specifically appropriate for mid-century modern interiors: MCM furniture design had exactly the same ambition — the Eames lounge chair, the Egg chair, the Barcelona chair are all realisations of the good-armchair programme in three dimensions. Matisse’s art and MCM furniture are different realisations of the same Modernist domestic ambition.

Two Versions: Hermitage and Barnes Foundation

There are two canonical versions of The Dance:

The Dance I (1909–10, State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg): The first, larger version, painted as a study for the Shchukin commission. Dimensions: 259.7 × 390.1 cm. Currently in the State Hermitage Museum, one of the world’s largest and most comprehensive art museums. This version has a slightly cooler flesh tone (closer to pink-red) and a slightly brighter green and blue than the second version.

The Dance II (1909–10, now Hermitage — originally the Shchukin commission version): The version Matisse painted for Shchukin’s staircase, slightly different in colour from the study. Also at the Hermitage following Soviet nationalisation of Shchukin’s collection after 1917.

The Barnes Foundation version (1932–33, Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia): A completely different, much larger mural-scale version commissioned by Albert C. Barnes for the Barnes Foundation building in Merion, Pennsylvania (now displayed at the new Barnes Foundation building in Philadelphia). The Barnes Dance uses a completely different composition (arched format to fit the gallery’s lunettes) and a different palette (more muted, less saturated than the 1909–10 Hermitage versions). The Barnes Foundation’s collection page for La Danse covers the 1932–33 commission.

The DeckArts diptych reproduces the 1909–10 composition — the most graphically bold and most widely reproduced version, with the saturated warm flesh, strong green ground, and strong blue sky that define the work’s iconic visual identity.

The Shchukin Commission: A Russian Merchant’s Staircase

The Dance was commissioned in 1909 by Sergei Shchukin (1854–1936), a Moscow textile merchant who was one of the most important early collectors of French avant-garde art in the world. Shchukin had been visiting Paris regularly since the 1890s and had assembled an extraordinary collection of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist works (Monet, Gauguin) before discovering Matisse and Picasso in the 1900s. His collection eventually included 37 Matisses and 50 Picassos.

Shchukin commissioned The Dance (and Music, a companion work) for the staircase hall of his Moscow mansion, the Trubetskoy Palace. The staircase was the transitional space between the mansion’s ground floor (where visitors entered) and the upper floors (where the collection was displayed) — a threshold space, as discussed in our hallway guide. The commission was specific: Matisse was to produce two works of the scale required for the staircase’s walls, with subject matter that suited the transitional and ceremonial function of the space.

The Dance as a staircase commission: movement, rhythm, and upward aspiration suit a staircase’s function. The five dancing figures’ circular rhythm creates a sense of continuous movement that corresponds to the visitor’s movement through the staircase. The bold flat colour requires no close-range reading of detail — it reads at the moving viewing distances of a staircase traversal.

After the 1917 Revolution, Shchukin’s entire collection was nationalised by the Soviet state and eventually distributed between the Hermitage and the Pushkin Museum in Moscow. Shchukin himself emigrated to Paris, where he died in 1936. The collection he assembled is now considered one of the most significant private collections of modern art in history, and its nationalisation is one of the most contested art confiscation cases in 20th-century history. The Hermitage held a major exhibition of Shchukin’s collected works in 2016.

The Dance on a Skateboard Diptych: Bold Graphic on Warm White

The Dance on a DeckArts diptych (~$230, ~45 cm wide) creates the most graphically bold and most compositionally dynamic mid-century modern wall art installation in the range. The diptych’s two decks present two vertical crops of the painting’s horizontal composition, each showing two or three of the five figures in a specific pose from the circular dance.

The specific visual effect on warm white walls: the strong green ground and strong blue sky of The Dance are the painting’s two saturated chromatic events. Against warm white, the green reads as a bold botanical accent and the blue reads as a cool sky accent — simultaneously warm-botanical and cool-sky within the same composition. On warm white, the flesh figures are the warmest element: the warm pink-red of the figures advances from the green and blue alternation as a warm figurative event in a cool-botanical ground.

The MCM correspondence: the warm flesh + green + blue of The Dance corresponds to the warm terracotta + sage + teal of mid-century modern colour programmes. The palette families share the warm-plus-cool-botanical-plus-cool-sky structure that characterises 1950s–1960s domestic colour design. The Dance’s bold flat colour programme is the 1910 art historical precedent for the MCM colour vocabulary; hanging The Dance above a teak MCM sofa on warm white makes this cultural-historical connection material.

Mid-Century Modern Living Rooms: The Most Specific Match

Matisse explicitly connected his painting programme to domestic function (“a good armchair”); MCM design explicitly connected its furniture programme to the same domestic restorative function. Both were working in the same cultural tradition of Modernist domestic design, and The Dance’s graphic formal language — bold flat colour, no spatial depth, organic rhythmic form — is the visual language that MCM design uses in textiles, ceramics, and graphic design.

The specific MCM room installation: The Dance diptych (~$230) above a teak sofa (120–130 cm, diptych at ~45 cm = 35–37% of sofa width — slightly below the 50% minimum for the standard 50–75% rule; for a compact MCM sofa of 90 cm, 45 cm is exactly 50%). On warm white or cream wall. Teak sofa frame, warm linen cushions in cream or terracotta, warm brass floor lamp at 2700K on the right side. The Dance’s warm flesh advances from the warm white as the primary figurative event; the green ground corresponds to the organic warmth of the teak furniture; the blue sky introduces the cool accent that the Japandi and Scandinavian programmes specify as the single-event cool accent.

For a larger MCM living room: The Dance as one element of a MCM gallery wall that also includes Botticelli Venus (warm ivory on warm white, intimate figurative) and Great Wave (Prussian blue on warm white, Japanese-MCM bridge). The three works together create a warm-white gallery wall with three different figurative and natural subjects, three different warm-plus-cool palette realisations, and three different cultural traditions (French Modernism, Florentine Renaissance, Japanese Ukiyo-e) on the same Canadian maple substrate.

Room-by-Room Installation Guide

Living room, MCM or contemporary (primary recommendation): The Dance diptych (~$230) above the sofa on warm white or warm cream. Art centre 155–165 cm from floor. Gap 15–20 cm above sofa back. Warm LED 2700K from ceiling track spot. For sofas 90–120 cm: diptych at ~45 cm is within 38–50% of sofa width — at the minimum or slightly below for standard sofas; single deck (~$140) may be more proportionally correct for sofas above 130 cm. See the Wall Art Sizing Guide: The 50–75% Rule for specific calculations.

Bedroom (contemporary or MCM): The Dance single deck (~$140) above the bed on warm white or warm cream. More intimate than the full diptych’s compositional breadth; concentrates on two or three figures rather than the full five-figure circle. Centre at 165–170 cm from floor or 15–20 cm above headboard. Warm LED 2700K.

Home office / studio (creative or design professional): The Dance single deck (~$140) above or facing the desk on warm white. The good armchair programme: the art as a restorative presence during work pauses, not a troubling or demanding one. The Dance’s graphic simplicity and rhythmic movement suit periods of visual rest between intense visual work.

Children’s room (age 5+): The Dance single deck (~$140) on warm white above the desk or above the bed. The five dancing figures are visually accessible for children at multiple levels: the movement, the colour, the circle, the near-touch of hands. For older children: the story of Shchukin’s staircase and the nationalisation of his collection is a specific introduction to the history of art and politics. See: Skateboard Wall Art for a Nursery and Children’s Room.

Works That Pair with The Dance

Hokusai Great Wave diptych: The Japanese-MCM visual bridge. The Dance (French Modernism, bold flat colour, 1910) and the Great Wave (Japanese Ukiyo-e, bold flat colour, c.1831) share the same graphic formal language: flat colour areas, bold compositional rhythm, no spatial depth. Both are cultural antecedents of the MCM design vocabulary. On warm white above a teak sofa: the Dance diptych on the left, the Great Wave diptych on the right, separated by 25–30 cm. See: Skateboard Wall Art for Mid-Century Modern Interiors.

Botticelli Birth of Venus: The Dance (dynamic rhythmic movement, bold flat colour) and Venus (static iconic emergence, warm ivory on pale ground) as companion figures in a warm white MCM room. Both are warm-palette figurative works; both are female figures in natural settings; both are canonical museum works with documented biographical context. Dance on warm white above the primary sofa wall; Venus single as a secondary accent on the adjacent wall.

Vermeer Pearl Earring: The graphic boldness of The Dance and the intimate concentration of the Pearl Earring create a compositional complement on a gallery wall: the large-scale rhythmic movement of five figures (Dance) beside the small-scale concentrated stillness of one face (Pearl Earring). The contrast in compositional register — movement vs stasis, crowd vs individual — is the gallery wall’s argument.

Matisse The Dance — Diptych (~$230)

Bold flat colour · warm white wall · MCM living room · UV archival 100+ years · Canadian maple · ships Berlin · 30-day return

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FAQ

What is Matisse’s The Dance about?

The Dance (La Danse, 1909–10, Hermitage St Petersburg) depicts five nude figures in a circular dance against a flat green ground and flat blue sky. Three bold flat colours — warm flesh, green, blue — with no modelling, depth, or psychological characterisation. Commissioned by Russian merchant Sergei Shchukin for his Moscow staircase. Matisse’s stated programme: an art of “balance, purity, and serenity” — “something like a good armchair.” One of the earliest examples of graphic abstraction that retains figuration; direct precursor to abstract expressionism and colour field painting. DeckArts diptych from ~$230. Hermitage Museum.

Where is Matisse’s The Dance painting?

The original Dance I and Dance II (both 1909–10) are at the State Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg, Russia — part of the Shchukin collection nationalised by the Soviet state after 1917. A later mural version (1932–33) is at the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia. The Hermitage is one of the world’s largest and most visited art museums. hermitagemuseum.org. DeckArts produces a UV archival diptych reproduction on Canadian maple from ~$230.

Which room is Matisse’s The Dance best for?

Primary: MCM or contemporary living room above a sofa on warm white or warm cream — the most culturally and aesthetically specific match (Matisse’s “good armchair” programme = MCM’s domestic restorative design ambition). Secondary: bedroom above bed on warm white (more intimate, concentrates on two or three figures); home office on warm white (restorative visual presence during work pauses); children’s room 5+ (accessible circular movement, graphic colour). Diptych (~$230) for living room; single deck (~$140) for bedroom and study. DeckArts Berlin.

Related Guides

• Skateboard Wall Art for Mid-Century Modern Interiors: Matisse, Klimt, Hokusai
• Skateboard Wall Art for a Living Room: Sizing, Style Guide
• Wall Art Sizing Guide: The 50–75% Rule
• LED Lighting for Classical Wall Art: Why 2700K Is Mandatory
• Skateboard Wall Art for a Nursery and Children’s Room

Article Summary

Matisse The Dance: La Danse 1909–10, oil on canvas, 259.7×390.1 cm, Hermitage St Petersburg; 5 nude figures circular dance, 3 bold flat colours (warm flesh, green, blue), no modelling/depth/psychological characterisation, broken hand circuit at top-left. Matisse biography: born 1869 Le Cateau-Cambrésis, law school → painting after illness, École des Beaux-Arts under Moreau, Fauvist 1904–1908, “Notes of a Painter” 1908 (good armchair statement). Two Hermitage versions + Barnes Foundation 1932–33 (mural, arched format, different palette). Shchukin commission: Sergei Shchukin Moscow textile merchant, 37 Matisses 50 Picassos, Trubetskoy Palace staircase hall, Dance + Music companion pair, 1917 nationalised, Shchukin emigrated Paris died 1936. On deck: diptych ~45 cm, two vertical crops of horizontal composition; bold green + blue against warm white (botanical + cool sky accents); warm flesh primary figurative event; MCM colour correspondence (warm flesh + green + blue ≈ terracotta + sage + teal). MCM match: Matisse “good armchair” = MCM ergonomic furniture restoration programme; same Modernist domestic ambition, different medium; The Dance above teak sofa on warm white = cultural historical connection material. Installation: MCM/contemporary living room diptych above sofa; bedroom single above bed; home office restorative presence; children 5+ accessible circular movement. Pairing: Great Wave (Japanese-MCM graphic bridge); Venus (dynamic vs static, crowd vs individual); Pearl Earring (movement vs stillness). DeckArts from ~$230 diptych. Canadian maple. UV archival 100+ years. Berlin. 30-day return.

About the Author

Stanislav Arnautov is the founder of DeckArts and a creative director from Ukraine based in Berlin.