A Dance of Petals... Loïe Fuller

No time to write what I had intended, but here are some beautifully petalled flowers of the Ranunculus family...

Members of this genus include the common buttercup...

But the ones here are far more delicate and decorative than their humble relative...

These are the Persian Buttercup - Ranunculus Asiaticus.

All seem to have been tinted in the most subtle manner...

That go from the palest shades, to the richest...

All in a flurry of tissue-paper petals that conceal the strangest formations in the heart of the flower head.

These seem densely packed in, ready to burst out...

And yet their energy seems to contradict the gentle beauty of this swirl of layers.

And all of this reminded me of the mesmerising dance of Loïe Fuller (1862 - 1928).

That had so inspired a generation of painters and sculptors at the beginning of the 20th century...

Toulouse-Lautrec Etude pour Loïe Fuller - 1893

And naturally many, many dancers, in her own time, such as Isadora Duncan. Loïe Fuller's influence still continues today. with Jody Sperling being perhaps the best example of this...

Loïe Fuller's art is fully synonymous with the floating, fluid lines of Art Nouveau. It conveys such an ethereal beauty, of light and lightness, that we have difficulty in equating this with the actual flesh-and-blood artist. Indeed, with her healthy frame and homely appearance Loïe herself seems to belie these same qualities! This further emphasises the magic of her dance....