Ballerina sitting on bed
fastening her shoestrings

1917

It is extremely interesting to observe the creative transition in this work entirely dominated by blue shades, in the background, in the sheet folding, on the panties and on the skin shadows. A picture of discreet beauty but very intense. What attracts us here, is the distinctness of the line drawing and the robust body. The pose of the dancer is in the same time nonchalant and composed, studied from a distance, which makes her present in the forms but absent through the look. The blue shades confer a somewhat unreal sensation. This work is well anchored in the century with a healthy sensuality which reminds us of Suzanne Valadon in her last decades. However and without any explanation an “abstract” sketch of this picture honours the cover of the Retrospective exhibition 1908-1918 that Beer held in February 1919 at the New gallery of Art in Stockholm, in parallel to the large February Group Exibition at Liljewalchs (where the painter only presented his works from 1918-1919). The non-figurative sketch (not cubist though) in black and white, corresponds when looking carefully to the exact drawing line of the dancer represented on the blue canvas (this was first to be remarked in 2002 by Renata Barbosa of the University of Strasbourg). Even more thrilling is the fact that Dick Beer executed in 1918 a larger cubist version of his blue ballerina. From the point of view of the art historian it would be extremely pertinent to make the connection between the 1917 canvas, the “abstract” drawing and the 1918 cubist dancer, for a study of colours and light, the overall composition the prevailing moods, and what changes in the passage from naturalist to cubist.