GENERAL DESCRIPTION
In the 1880s and 1890s, Edgar Degas became increasingly fascinated by the ballet, especially its physical demands on dancers. Instead of presenting ballerinas as light and graceful, the artist depicted them in the awkward poses between movements. The dancers’ arms (eleven total) overlap in a rhythmic play of form. Degas’s use of cropping and an unconventional vantage point gives the appearance of limbs detached from bodies. It is as though we are spectators in a balcony peering down at a performance. The dancers are garishly illuminated by the gas footlights of the stage. Degas’s mastery of the medium of pastel allowed him to suggest both the density of the tangled bodies and the airiness of their tulle costumes.
Excerpt from
Nicole Myers, DMA label copy, 2017.
NOTES
Created 1883
Checked Piction
Bonnie Pitman, ed., "Ballet Dancers on the Stage," in Dallas Museum of Art: A Guide to the Collection (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2012), 210.
The diving, almost vertical, perspective of this elaborate pastel re-creates the view a ballet patron would have from a box seat high at the side of the stage. The sense of compressed space even suggests the opera glasses the spectator might use. The dancers are gathered in a diagonal, asymmetrical composition, their figures cropped by the frame and by one another. Edgar Degas's masterful use of pastel captures the magic of the theater in the glowing tulle skirts and glittering light reflections. At the same time, Degas's fierce eye ably discerned and transcribed all the weight, tension, and effort held in the dancers' bodies.
Another theme of the Musee d'Orsay exhibit is "Iaponisme," the influence of japanese art, especially wood block prints, on Parisian artists in the last half of the 19th century Edgar Degas is one of the best known of these artists: his asymmetrical compositions, often seen from very unconventional viewpoints, translated the compositional design of japanese art into the rich, three-dimensional style of European painting. Degas also loved painting opera or ballet performances in the theater - another important theme of the period. In Dancers on the Stage you may see Degas' remarkable ability to convey the palpable reality of figures in very brief, quickly defined forms. These springing, lilting bodies of the dancers have a strong physical immediacy thanks to the diagonal composition and foreshorten ed space. Such fluent power is far removed from the carefully modeled and built up figures of academic artists. Speed was one of the marks of Impressionist technique, like the movement of the railways they so much admired.
Pulled from
Anne Bromberg, "Looking at Art: France in the 19th Century," DMA Bulletin Summer 1986, 11-13
Degas's perspective of the ballet is like that of a patron in a box at the theater who uses binoculars to watch the dancers. Not all of the dancers on the stage can be seen, but some are brought closer and parts of the group suggest the whole. Using devices common to the Japanese prints he so admired, Degas arranges his composition in an asymmetrical way, balancing a triangular void at bottom left with the cluster of figures filling the center and upper right. With a masterful pastel technique, Degas creates a pattern of light and dark that makes the dancers and their costumes glow magically in the footlights.
Museum of Europe Label Text
August 1993
Catalogue essays
Artist/designers
Degas, Edgar (French, 1834-1917)
Cultures
Geography
Process/materials
Pastel on paper
Historical periods
Individuals
Subject terms
RELATED OBJECTS
PROVENANCE
AUDIO ASSETS
13315431: UMO Degas, Dance, Dallas Richard Kendall
44996925: UMO Learn more about Degas
VIDEO ASSETS
IMAGE ASSETS
WEB RESOURCES
- YouTube~Watch this animated video about Degas's depictions of ballet dancers from the "Art with Mati and Dada" series.
ARCHIVAL RESOURCES
FUN FACTS
TEACHING IDEAS
RULES
Apply to objects where number equals 1986.277
Category
rules_operator
AND
General Description
In the 1880s and 1890s, Edgar Degas became increasingly fascinated by the ballet, especially its physical demands on dancers. Instead of presenting ballerinas as light and graceful, the artist depicted them in the awkward poses between movements. The dancers’ arms (eleven total) overlap in a rhythmic play of form. Degas’s use of cropping and an unconventional vantage point gives the appearance of limbs detached from bodies. It is as though we are spectators in a balcony peering down at a performance. The dancers are garishly illuminated by the gas footlights of the stage. Degas’s mastery of the medium of pastel allowed him to suggest both the density of the tangled bodies and the airiness of their tulle costumes.
Excerpt from
Nicole Myers, DMA label copy, 2017.
Fun Facts
Archival Resources
Web Resources
- YouTube~Watch this animated video about Degas's depictions of ballet dancers from the "Art with Mati and Dada" series.
Notes
Created 1883
Checked Piction
Bonnie Pitman, ed., "Ballet Dancers on the Stage," in Dallas Museum of Art: A Guide to the Collection (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2012), 210.
The diving, almost vertical, perspective of this elaborate pastel re-creates the view a ballet patron would have from a box seat high at the side of the stage. The sense of compressed space even suggests the opera glasses the spectator might use. The dancers are gathered in a diagonal, asymmetrical composition, their figures cropped by the frame and by one another. Edgar Degas's masterful use of pastel captures the magic of the theater in the glowing tulle skirts and glittering light reflections. At the same time, Degas's fierce eye ably discerned and transcribed all the weight, tension, and effort held in the dancers' bodies.
Another theme of the Musee d'Orsay exhibit is "Iaponisme," the influence of japanese art, especially wood block prints, on Parisian artists in the last half of the 19th century Edgar Degas is one of the best known of these artists: his asymmetrical compositions, often seen from very unconventional viewpoints, translated the compositional design of japanese art into the rich, three-dimensional style of European painting. Degas also loved painting opera or ballet performances in the theater - another important theme of the period. In Dancers on the Stage you may see Degas' remarkable ability to convey the palpable reality of figures in very brief, quickly defined forms. These springing, lilting bodies of the dancers have a strong physical immediacy thanks to the diagonal composition and foreshorten ed space. Such fluent power is far removed from the carefully modeled and built up figures of academic artists. Speed was one of the marks of Impressionist technique, like the movement of the railways they so much admired.
Pulled from
Anne Bromberg, "Looking at Art: France in the 19th Century," DMA Bulletin Summer 1986, 11-13
Degas's perspective of the ballet is like that of a patron in a box at the theater who uses binoculars to watch the dancers. Not all of the dancers on the stage can be seen, but some are brought closer and parts of the group suggest the whole. Using devices common to the Japanese prints he so admired, Degas arranges his composition in an asymmetrical way, balancing a triangular void at bottom left with the cluster of figures filling the center and upper right. With a masterful pastel technique, Degas creates a pattern of light and dark that makes the dancers and their costumes glow magically in the footlights.
Museum of Europe Label Text
August 1993
Catalogue essays
Artist/designers
Degas, Edgar (French, 1834-1917)
Cultures
Geography
Process/materials
Pastel on paper
Historical periods
Individuals
Subject terms
RELATED OBJECTS
PROVENANCE
AUDIO ASSETS
13315431: UMO Degas, Dance, Dallas Richard Kendall
44996925: UMO Learn more about Degas
VIDEO ASSETS
rules
Apply To
Objects
number
Equals
1986.277
source file
object_notes_2_d-0306.xml.nores