Jan Sluijters artwork • watercolour • drawing • for sale Dancer

Gertrud Leistikow (1885-1948) dancer of German descent, introduced modern or 'German' dance in the Netherlands. She detested classical ballet and invented her own choreographies without using existing ballet techniques. Improvisation was leading in this, with the body following the soul. She was always alone on stage, in self-designed and made costumes. According to contemporaries, her strength lay not in her virtuoso technique, but in the dramatic intensity of her performances. After her marriage to a Dutch flower grower in 1912, she founded several dance schools and found her way in the Amsterdam art world, where she became acquainted with the Dutch avant-garde. Leistikow drinks with poets – Bertolt Brecht even writes a poem for her – and she poses for Jan Sluijters. Else Berg draws her, Mommie Schwarz designs posters for her and she performs with masks that Hildo Krop designs for her. She performs in Carré, the Concertgebouw, but most preferably in the Stadsschouwburg. This watercolor may be a preliminary study for the oil painting from the Narndinc Collection in the Singer Museum Laren.