Burlesque Theater c. 1900

Here, Joseph Stella sketches in pencil an American burlesque theatre, a symbol of early twentieth-century entertainment. The patrons and performers under the lamps, evoke a timeless human fascination with spectacle and social interaction. The lamps, hanging like watchful eyes, remind me of similar light fixtures in Dutch Golden Age interiors. In those paintings, light often symbolized enlightenment or divine presence. Here, in this modern setting, the lamps cast a different light, one of theatricality and perhaps, moral ambiguity. Consider the theater itself, a place of illusion and escapism. Since antiquity, theatre stages have been spaces where archetypes and primal emotions are expressed. Do not overlook the collective subconscious, always shaping our perception of reality. Even now, we can almost hear the music, laughter and applause, the performance of social roles, and the interplay between observer and observed.