Cake Walk
Date: 1907
Medium: Monotype
Dimensions: plate: 4 7/8 × 7 in. (12.4 × 17.8 cm) sheet: 8 3/8 × 10 15/16 in. (21.3 × 27.8 cm)
Credit Line: Gift of Helen Farr Sloan, 1978
Object Number: 1978-45
About: To produce a monotype, an artist paints on a smooth surface, which is then pressed against paper, leaving a reversed image on the paper. Luks has used the medium of monotype to great effect here, using broad strokes to express the movement of the dancers. Along with John Sloan and Robert Henri, Luks was one of many artists to experiment with the monotype process in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. A monotype is a one-of-a-kind image that is drawn or painted onto a smooth flat surface, usually glass or metal, and then transferred by pressure onto paper. Although the monotype process is not designed to print multiple copies, an artist can print ghost images, each one paler than the last, if sufficient ink remains on the plate. In the 1880s, the monotype method was revived by the French Impressionists and became quite popular among artists in the decades that followed.
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