Dance of the Hanged Men (Bal des pendus) takes its title from an 1870 poem by Arthur Rimbaud. That text, which describes a macabre gallows scene overseen by Beelzebub, is suggested in Burra's nightmarish image, where faceless figures in masks and cloaks inflict terrible acts of violence on each other. Burra traveled extensively in Spain and Mexico during the Spanish Civil War, and the widespread violence and unrest that he witnessed there became a dominant theme in his work of the late 1930s.

Gallery label from

Soldier, Spectre, Shaman: The Figure and the Second World War, October 24, 2015-March 20, 2016.

Medium Watercolor on board
Dimensions 61 1/8 x 44 7/8" (155.3 x 114 cm)
Credit Purchase
Object number 233.1948
Department Drawings and Prints

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