The Ballet

c. 1880

Edgar Degas

Artist, French, 1834 - 1917

A man wearing a black suit stands in the middle of a line of five ballerinas on a stage in this vertical pastel drawing. The dancer closest to us is cut off by the right edge of the sheet, and the line of dancers angles away from us to our left. The ballerinas’ white costumes have off-the-shoulder bodices and knee-length tutus. Black ribbons encircle their necks and wrists, and their tights and slippers are bright, carnation pink. Pink and white flowers adorn their hair and dresses. The man in black is balding and has a dark goatee. He stands next to the dancer closest to us. Three dancers on his far side seem to stand casually in the wings of the stage, their feet outturned. The final dancer, farther from us, is bright in the stage lights. The floor is ash-gray, and the backdrop is drawn loosely with visible strokes in pine green, ochre yellow, lapis and ice blue. A narrow margin lines the edges of the tan paper. The artist signed the lower left corner, “Degas.”

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Artwork overview

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Charpentier collection, Paris; Adolphe Tavernier, Paris, 1900; (sale Paris, Galerie Georges Petit, 6 March 1900, no. 117); (Durand-Ruel, New York); William A. Clark; bequeathed 1926 to Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington; acquired 2014 by the National Gallery of Art.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1959

  • Masterpieces of the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Wildenstein Gallery, New York, 28 February-7 March 1959.

1970

  • One Hundred Years of Impressionism, Wildenstein Gallery, New York, 2 April-10 May 1970, no. 44.

1978

  • The William A. Clark Collection, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, 26 April-16 July 1978.

1980

  • That's Entertainment!, The Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, 12 June-24 August 1980.

1984

  • Degas: The Dancers,The National Gallery of Art, Washington D. C., 22 November 1984-10 March 1985, no. 4.

2011

  • Degas's Dancers at the Barre: Point and Counterpoint, The Phillips Collection, Washington, 2011-2012.

2014

  • Degas' Little Dancer, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 2014-2015, no catalogue.

2019

  • The Touch of Color: Pastels at the National Gallery of Art, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 2019 - 2020, unnumbered catalogue.

  • Degas at the Opera, Musée d'Orsay, Paris; National Gallery of Art, Washington, 2019-2020, not reproduced (shown only in Washington).

Bibliography

1918

  • Lafond, Paul. Degas. 2 vols. Paris, 1918-1919: 2(1919):repro., as Avant le Ballet.

1927

  • Manson, JB. The Life and Work of Edgar Degas. London, 1927: Pl. 63.

1932

  • Corcoran Gallery of Art. Illustrated Handbook of the W.A. Clark Collection. Washington, 1932: 43, no. 2071.

1944

  • Rebatet, Marguerite. Degas. Paris, 1944: pl. 84.

1945

  • Mauclair, Camille. Edgar Degas. New York, 1945: n.p.

1946

  • Lemoisne, Paul André. Degas et son Oeuvre. 4 vols. Paris, 1946-1949: 2:pl. 500.

1948

  • Dumont, Henri. Degas. New York, 1948: 26.

1959

  • Browse, Lillian. Degas Dancers. London, 1959: no. 139, 384.

2003

  • Gross, Suzanne and Suzanne Boorsch. Degas: Defining the Modernist Edge. New Haven, 2003: 24-25, fig. 7.

2019

  • Schulman, Michael.Edgar Degas, Digital Critical Catalogue. MS-1996.

Inscriptions

lower left in chalk: Degas

Wikidata ID

Q64556401

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