(Cortona/Arezzo 1883–1966 Paris)
Studio per tango argentino, 1913, signed, dated G. Severini 1913, with dedication signed by the artist’s wife Jeanne Severini,, black ink on yellow paper, 24 x 15.7 cm, framed, (MCC)

Photo certificate:
Romana Severini Brunori, archive no. 07, 28 June 2015 (in the artist’s Archive the work is recorded on an old glass photo image by the French photographer Marc Vaux)

Provenance:
Atelier of the artist
Madame Jeanne Severini Collection (1897-1992, the artist’s wife), Paris
gift to the family of the present owner
- Private Collection Italy

Severini probably started to think about the subject of Argentinian tango after he returned to Italy. It was not just the reprise of dancing themes in which he had already shown an interest; he drew inspiration from a particular dance, the way he had done with the “Bear Dance” in the past, so that he could convey the qualities of its abstract groove without sacrificing to naturalism.
(.......) Severini centres his composition around the two interconnected bodies, which project the lines of force of their arms and legs into the environment; however, their shapes are given a plastic solidity which is usually denied to other dancing subjects. Arms and legs have a tube-shaped propensity with metallic glows that reminds of Malevic or Leger’s ‘Nudes in the forest’

(D.Fonti, Gino Severini: catalogue raisonné, 1988)