Dancers at the Old Opera House

c. 1877

Edgar Degas

Artist, French, 1834 - 1917

We look slightly down and across a stage, as if from the wings, at a ballet performance with ballerinas to our left and the audience to our right in this vertical print. The artist has added strokes in pastel in some areas, as for the dancers’ pink tights and pointed toe shoes. The whole scene is loosely rendered, either with pastel or in the monotype print on which the artist drew. There are at least three ballerinas lined up in a row moving away from us, along the left edge of the paper. Their dark hair is pulled up and, for the woman farthest from us, two pink flowers adorn her hair. They wear costumes with silvery-white bodices and flaring, knee-length tutus. An area streaked with pine green and brown in the upper left corner could be a curtain behind the dancers, and people wearing black watch from red box seats across the stage from us. The surface of the stage itself is a blend of charcoal gray and rose pink, and the edge is lined with white to our right. The audience is a made up of a few peach dots within strokes and smudges of black. More gold and brick-red box seats fill the wall opposite us. There is a black silhouette along the right edge of the paper, with a bulge near the bottom right corner perhaps indicating the shoulder of an onlooker from the wings, next to us. The artist signed the work with vibrant blue near the lower right corner, “degas.”

Media Options

This object’s media is free and in the public domain. Read our full Open Access policy for images.
Not on view See artworks now on view
Order reproductions from the Gallery Shop

Artwork overview

  • Medium

    pastel over monotype on laid paper

  • Credit Line

    Ailsa Mellon Bruce Collection

  • Dimensions

    overall: 21.8 x 17.1 cm (8 9/16 x 6 3/4 in.)
    framed: 35.5 x 31.1 x 3.8 cm (14 x 12 1/4 x 1 1/2 in.)

  • Accession

    1970.17.26

  • Catalogue Raisonné

    Lemoisne 1946, no. 432

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Théodore Duret [1837-1927], Paris; (his sale, 19 March 1894, no. 12); (Galerie Durand-Ruel, Paris); Antonin Proust [1832-1905], Paris; (M. Knoedler and Co., Paris); (César de Hauke, New York); Andrew W. Mellon [1855-1937], Pittsburgh and Washington, D.C.; gift 1930 to his daughter, Ailsa Mellon Bruce [1901-1969], New York; bequest 1970 to NGA.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1961

  • French Paintings of the Nineteenth Century from the Collection of Mrs. Mellon Bruce, California Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco, 1961, no. 19, repro.

1966

  • French Paintings from the Collections of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon and Mrs. Mellon Bruce, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1966, no. 53, repro.

1984

  • Degas: The Dancers, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1984-1985, no. 7, repro.

2012

  • Impressionism: Pastels, Watercolors, Drawings. Albertina, Vienna, 2012 (not in catalogue).

2014

  • Degas's Little Dancer. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 2014-2015, brochure, fig. 2.

2019

  • Degas at the Opera, Musée d'Orsay, Paris; National Gallery of Art, Washington, 2019-2020, no. 130, repro.

Bibliography

1946

  • Lemoisne, Paul André. Degas et son oeuvre. 4 vols. Paris: Arts et metiers graphiques, 1946-1949. Vols. 2 and 3, 1946. Reprinted in 5 vols., New York and London, 1984.

1968

  • Bodelsen, Merete. "Early Impressionist Sales 1874-94 in the light of some unpublished 'procès-verbaux'." The Burlington Magazine 110 (June 1968): 346.

1970

  • Russoli, F. and F. Minervino. L'Opera complete di Degas. Milan, 1970: 110, no. 501 (repr.).

1971

  • Clay, J. L'Impressionisme. Paris, 1971: 68 (repr. in color).

1975

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 100, repro.

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. New York, 1975: 483, no. 716, color repr.

1978

  • Small French Paintings from the Bequest of Ailsa Mellon Bruce. Exh. cat. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1978: 26, repro. (continuing exhibition beginning in 1978).

1984

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 478, no. 705, color repro.

  • Lemoisne, Paul-André. Degas et son Oeuvre. 5 vols. New York, 1984: 2: 236, no. 432.

1985

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 122, repro.

1991

  • Wadley, Nicholas. Impressionist and Post-Impressionist Drawing. London, 1991: no. 12.

  • Kopper, Philip. America's National Gallery of Art: A Gift to the Nation. New York, 1991: 262, color repro.

2002

  • DeVonyar, Jill and Richard Kendall. Degas and the Dance. Exh. cat. The Detroit [Michigan] Institute of Arts, The Philadelphia [Pennsylvania] Museum of Art. New York, 2002: 18, 101, pl. 8.

2019

  • Schulman, Michael.Edgar Degas, Digital Critical Catalogue. MS-1978.

Inscriptions

lower right: Degas

Wikidata ID

Q64556349

You may be interested in

Loading Results