The Dancing Couple series is an intimate group of faceless portraits developed by Philip Hanson in late 1968. The couples depicted in these works cling to each other, clad in intricately detailed costumes reminiscent of postwar frivolity. They exist not as individuals, but as single units of nostalgic whimsy. In these prints, Hanson borrowed from cartoon conventions of line and style, utilizing small, enclosed narrative frames with figures thrown into motion by the symbolic action of the cartoon backsplash. The shadowed, featureless faces, paired with the density of the etched line, create a foreboding atmospheric effect.
