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H. Lyman Säyen
The Thundershower
about 1917—18
tempera on wood
36 x 46 in.
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of H. Lyman Säyen to his nation
The pulse of modern life animates H. Lyman Säyen's dancers in The Thundershower. Säyen studied with Matisse in Paris and was among the first to introduce avant-garde styles into America. Here, his dynamic shapes foreshadow the patterns of Art Deco, the dominant decorative style of the 1920s and ´30s.