Artwork Page for Frieze of Dancers

Details / Information for Frieze of Dancers

Frieze of Dancers

c. 1895

Edgar Degas

(French, 1834–1917)
Culture
France, 19th century
Medium
oil on fabric
Measurements
Framed: 103 x 233.5 x 7 cm (40 9/16 x 91 15/16 x 2 3/4 in.); Unframed: 70 x 200.5 cm (27 9/16 x 78 15/16 in.)
Credit Line
Gift of the Hanna Fund 1946.83
Public Domain
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Location
222 Impressionism & Post-Impressionism
Print
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Did You Know?

The ballet is a subject Degas returned to again and again over the course of his career. Rather than public performances, he often depicted dancers behind the curtain, practicing, waiting, or, as in this painting, lacing up their shoes.

Description

This painting may depict a single dancer seen from four different viewpoints. The young woman is placed in an undefined setting, surrounded by mere wisps of color, applied so spontaneously that the paint ran and dripped. Degas even added the circles in the foreground with his thumb. Such audacity, while acceptable in a small sketch, must have shocked the artist's contemporaries when presented on a six-foot canvas. Equally radical is the idea of combining multiple views of a single figure. Degas's unusual presentation may have been inspired by the photographs of Eadweard Muybridge (1830-1904)
Horizontally long oil painting depicting four views of a dancer bending down to lace up their shoes, skin and tutus the same hazy grey-and-white coloring contrasting with red-orange hair and occasional green blotches. Left to right against a blotchy, orange-brown background, the dancer sits, legs out, squats over their right leg, looking to our left, squats in profile facing our left, and sits in a chair, back to us. Sketchy, black lines outline each position.

Frieze of Dancers

c. 1895

Edgar Degas

(French, 1834–1917)
France, 19th century

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