{"data":{"id":"383","type":"artist","attributes":{"id":383,"topgoose_id":2449,"tms_id":383,"display_name":"Guy Pène Du Bois","sort_name":"Du Bois Guy Pène","display_date":"1884–1958","begin_date":"1884","end_date":"1958","biography":"\u003cp\u003eGuy Pène Du Bois studied under the Ashcan School painter \u003ca href=\"/artists/597\"\u003eRobert Henri\u003c/a\u003e, but rather than following his teacher’s exhortation to paint ordinary people and places, Du Bois gravitated toward high society. His portraits of chic flappers, elegant matrons, and powerful businessmen capture the glamour, complacency, and disquiet of New York during the Roaring Twenties. With a satirist’s eye for social foibles and pretensions, Du Bois depicted the affluent at leisure— at art galleries, racetracks, cafés, and the theater.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"/collection/works/1430\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eOpera Box\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/a\u003e, a canvas of unprecedented scale and ambition in the artist’s oeuvre, takes place at one of his favorite haunts. Du Bois worked for several years as a music critic and frequently attended the opera, where he was captivated as much by the stylish operagoers as by the performances themselves. The statuesque woman featured in the painting, impassive and regal in demeanor, looks down from an upper tier of the house and seems lost in thought, isolated from the audience around her. Her solitude and inaccessibility are reinforced by the monumental, cylindrical forms of her body as well as by the stark contrast of her white skin and dress against the shadowy background. The woman appears almost as if on stage herself, but whether she is consciously posing for the admiration of others or has been caught unawares in a momentary expression of ennui is unclear. With her masklike visage and stylized physique, the graceful protagonist of \u003cem\u003eOpera\nBox\u003c/em\u003e—which Du Bois described as “the\nmost important picture I have ever made”—\nremains an enigma.\u003c/p\u003e","on_view":false,"artport":false,"biennial":true,"collection":true,"ulan_id":"500120494","wikidata_id":"Q5622550","created_at":"2017-08-30T17:22:38.000-04:00","updated_at":"2026-04-13T07:02:34.148-04:00","links":{"artworks":"/api/artists/383/artworks","exhibitions":"/api/artists/383/exhibitions"}}}}