Title of Artwork: “Eine Kleine Nachtmusik”
Artwork by Dorothea Tanning
Year Created 1943
Summary of Eine Kleine Nachtmusik
One of Tanning’s very first works, Eine Kleine Nachtmusik shows a link to Surrealist concepts while painting with a high degree of realistic accuracy. The setting is a hotel hallway or a grand house, and the title is a reference to Mozart’s “a little night music.” We immediately associate the image with a nightmare because of the setting’s nighttime nature. On the floor, there is a large sunflower, and there are two little girls, one of whom has her eyes closed and is holding one of the sunflower’s petals. The hair of one of the women soars far into the air that it forms a towering structure when caught in the wind. Although her hair does not quite reach her forehead, the other girl resembles controversial sculptures by Hans Bellmer. This raises the issue of whether she is genuine or a toy. A bright light shines through a shattered door as the other three stay closed.
All About Eine Kleine Nachtmusik
In the image, there’s a clear nod to the artist’s younger years. For the sake of escaping from their harsh puritanical Midwestern American environment, she and her sisters developed a sophisticated fantasy world. Sunflowers are abundant in her area, so they’ve become an important part of her personal brand. The children in Palaestra (1949), as well as other works, are dressed in the luxurious silks that Tanning’s mother favoured. All of the women in the paintings are shown with their shirts undone, lending a sensuous and seductive quality to the artwork. Tanning composed Ein Kleines Nachtlied by herself “It’s all about putting yourself out there. Everyone believes he/she is the centre of attention when it comes to their drama. It doesn’t matter if they don’t have big sunflowers to deal with since there are always stairways, halls, and even little theatrical spaces where the suffocations and finalities are played out, the blood crimson carpet or harsh yellows…” Instead of facing an actual threat, the goal is to survive one’s own irrational thoughts and emotions. It’s possible that Tanning was inspired by Pierre Roy’s Danger on the Stairs (1927), which he would have seen in New York in 1936 at the “Fantastic Art, Dad and Surrealism” exhibition, as the painting’s arrangement suggests.
Information Citations
En.wikipedia.org, https://en.wikipedia.org/.
