Degas at the Races: Paintings and Drawings

The Dance Lesson, 1879, oil on canvas, National Gallery of Art, Washington, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon

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Degas' work is dominated by certain subjects: the racehorse, the ballerina, the nude, the laundress. He worked with these themes almost obsessively, searching for perfection. Degas is known by the American public primarily for his ballet scenes, such as this one, The Dance Lesson. In approach and in composition, they are similar to his depictions of horses at the races, for in both subjects the artist saw the qualities of nervous tension, an elegant and sometimes awkward grace, and the tightly restrained and controlled energy of physical performance.

When painting ballerinas and racehorses, Degas rarely showed them in action, preferring to depict them at rehearsal--"before the start" or "before the race," as many of these images are called. This painting also depicts preparation for a performance. Degas liked the informality of that kind of scene. Instead of the public persona of the dancer, the prima ballerina carefully posed, he depicts the real person in informal circumstances. Here the dancer on the far left, wrapped in a red shawl, is resting with her head on her hand, perhaps taking a quick nap. Another dancer sits with her tutu fanned over the back of a chair; not a graceful pose, but very much part of the dancer's everyday life. Degas depicts horses in the same way, in the anticipatory moments when jockeys try to gain control of their mounts before the start of the race.

Authenticity is what interested Degas. He actually said that he wanted to "paint life through a keyhole." He liked to capture reality, intimate and informal. He loved the dance, but the performance was for everyone. This was a way of "peeking behind the curtain."

Works such as this show the innovation of Degas. The strong horizontal composition recalls his early fascination with classical friezes and bas-relief. Here, too, the composition is meant to be read from left to right, like a narrative.

We can also detect the influence of Japanese prints in the way Degas crops his images. For instance, only half of the dancer is shown at the far right. Her bright orange bow and her back are visible, but not her front. The tutu of the dancer on the far left has been cut off. The view of her seems accidental, like a "snapshot," immediate and spontaneous. The influence of the Japanese print is also felt in the way that the ground shifts upward. The composition tilts slightly, so that not only does it read from left to right, but also from bottom left to upper right. To our twentieth-century eyes, this isn't shocking. But in the nineteenth century, this was a daring shift of spatial references.

In this painting, Degas has created a perfect counterpoise of the figure in the lower left with the figures on the upper right. Like a seesaw, they are held in balance by the figures in the center. Although these compositional strategies create an informal, casual impression, the image is very carefully composed. Everything Degas created was very carefully considered and orchestrated; the genius is in its apparent effortlessness.