Pavlova Dancing the Gavotte (1915): Art, History and Details

Pavlova Dancing the Gavotte (1915) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Malvina Hoffman (American, 1887–1966).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Sculptor Malvina Hoffman met the acclaimed Russian ballerina Ana Pavlova in New York during the spring of 1914. This bronze rendering of the dancer, posed with broadly outstretched arms, was created the following year. At the time, Pavlova was attempting to popularize a Russian version of the French folk dance known as the gavotte.

Object facts

• Title: Pavlova Dancing the Gavotte
• Date: 1915
• Creator attribution: Malvina Hoffman (American, 1887–1966)
• Culture: America
• Type: Sculpture
• Technique: bronze
• Dimensions: Overall: 35.6 cm (14 in.)
• Collection: American - Sculpture
• Department: American Painting and Sculpture
• Accession number: 1923.725

A detail from the museum

A pavlova is a meringue-based dessert inspired by the shape of ballerina Anna Pavlova's tutu.

Collection credit

Gift of Mrs. Henry A. Everett for the Dorothy Burnham Everett Memorial Collection

Further reading listed by the museum

• Solender, Katherine. The American Way in Sculpture, 1890-1930. Cleveland, OH: Published by the Cleveland Museum of Art in cooperation with Indiana University Press, 1986.
• Ausherman, Maria, Masters of Shape: The Lives and Art of American Women Sculptors. (Novato, CA: Goff Books, 2022).

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.