Locatelli, who had always excelled at painting children, also made a memorable paintings of legong dance. Considered the most classical and elegant of all balinese dances, legong is a complicated dance that is performed by girls not more than 8 years old. Locatelli’s 1939 canvas, “legong dancer,” now a highlight of the newly established museum pasifika, is considered a late orientalist masterpiece: a sharp-eyed depiction of asian culture seen through a westerner’s eyes. In some respects, the “legong dancer” is reminiscent of the painter degas’ depictions of young women enduring the rigors of ballet training. Date: 1939.
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