The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of November 15, 2026

A vertically oriented drypoint print in grainy black ink expressively depicts a dancer with long dark hair, wearing a light-colored tutu and facing left. To her left, a large dark mass of dense, scratchy lines dominates the foreground. To our right, the tutu of another figure is partially visible. Rapid, sketchy lines fill the background, suggesting stage scenery. Light illuminates the dancer from the right.

Two Dancers in the Wings

1879–80

Edgar Degas

(French, 1834–1917)
France
drypoint (crayon électrique)
Sheet: 29.6 x 21.6 cm (11 5/8 x 8 1/2 in.); Image: 11.3 x 10.2 cm (4 7/16 x 4 in.)
Dudley P. Allen Fund 2026.52
Catalogue raisonné: Reed and Shapiro 39
Location: Not on view

Did You Know?

Edgar Degas began to use carbon rods to create prints after a visit to his friend, industrialist and collector Alexis Rouart, who offered the artist this tool to create a print after he stayed overnight to avoid an impending snowstorm.

Description

Degas began to explore the intaglio printmaking techniques used to create Two Dancers in the Wings as early as the 1850s and saw prints as having an important part to play in the Impressionists’ group exhibitions. This work is the only one he created entirely using crayon électrique--a carbon rod used to incise the surface of a copper plate. Here, he used the diffuse lines created by this technique to portray the anxious stasis of two young ballerinas standing beside a massive, dark curtain, waiting to perform.
  • W.G. Russell Allen [1882-1955], Boston, MA
    Mr. And Mrs. Alexander J. [1918-1998] Oppenheimer, San Antonio, TX
    James Bergquist, Newton, MA
    Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • {{cite web|title=Two Dancers in the Wings|url=false|author=Edgar Degas|year=1879–80|access-date=15 November 2026|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2026.52