Negro and Negro

This lithograph by Erik Obermann depicts a couple in early-twentieth-century dress engaged in a high-spirited dance. The woman wears a large feathered hat and flowing dress; the man sports a top hat and tailored suit, his leg kicked up in exuberant motion. The work descends from the European caricature tradition of Gillray and Daumier, which privileged satirical line work and physical exaggeration to mock social types and pretension.