A Pavane

Hired by his friend the architect Stanford White, Abbey painted A Pavane as an overmantel for the dining room of the prominent New York publisher and diplomat Whitelaw Reid. [...] Abbey’s final composition of dancing couples speaks to the room’s purpose as a place of entertainment and social interaction. His subject, a pavane, a court dance of the Renaissance with stylized movements and stately rhythms, would have complemented the dignified architecture of the room. Read more...

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Bequest of Susan A.D. McKelvey and Bequest of Kathleen Rothe, by exchange