Grabbing onto the hand of her partner, she make a sweeping gesture denoting dance and movement. The lines created by her arms allow the eye to move freely across the canvas. The right-hand dancer turns her torso around fully, and doing so she encourages us to gaze where she is, back at the center of the composition. Rhythm pervades Derain's piece because of his selection of dance as a subject, but also because of the use of curvilinear forms that keep the eye flowing. Moreover, colors repeat themselves enthusiastically, spread out across the canvas and avoiding stagnation.

At first glance, Edward Hooper's Early Sunday Morning exudes stillness and with its straight lines is nothing like Derain's Dance. The town is asleep, businesses closed for the day and not a person is in sight. Yet it is precisely the lack of people that makes Hooper's composition so compelling and full of...
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