Degas Most Famous Paintings the Dance Class Degas Metropolitan Museum of Art

Imagine walking into a class filled with ballerinas practicing and chatting with ane some other completely unaware that you walked in. This is what we see in so many of the paintings past the Impressionist Edgar Degas. He gave us insider views of the goings-on in the dance studios of the Paris Opera during the 19^th century, which is what we will discuss in the commodity beneath, specifically looking at The Trip the light fantastic toe Form (1874) painting.

Table of Contents

one Artist Abstract: Who Was Edgar Degas?
2 The Dance Form (1874) Past Edgar Degas in Context
- ii.1 Contextual Analysis: A Brief Socio-Historical Overview
- 2.2 "The Painter of Dancing Girls": Is There More to the Story?
3 Formal Analysis: A Brief Compositional Overview
- 3.i Subject Matter
- 3.2 Colour
iv Finale: Degas Created a Sensory Experience
5 Frequently Asked Questions
- 5.i Who Painted The Dance Class?
- 5.2 How Many Versions of Degas' The Dance Form Painting Are At that place?

Artist Abstruse: Who Was Edgar Degas?

Born on July 19, 1834, Edgar Degas was built-in every bit Hilaire Germain Edgar De Gas only changed his surname to Degas when he was older. His parents were from different countries, notably New Orleans and America. He enjoyed art from an early on age and wanted to pursue studies in it later he turned eighteen.

His begetter encouraged him to study Police, of which he enrolled in 1853, just in 1855 he started studying at École des Beaux-Arts. He studied Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres' art manner nether Louis Lamothe. Degas traveled to Italian republic during his twenties equally well every bit stayed with his brother, René, in New Orleans from 1872 to 1873. He lived and died in Paris in 1917.

Self-portrait (1854/1855) by Edgar Degas;Edgar Degas, Public domain, via Wikimedia Eatables

The Dance Class (1874) By Edgar Degas in Context

The Dance Course painting past Edgar Degas was among one of his finest examples from the Impressionist art motility from Paris. However, although Degas has been known as an Impressionist, he never fully identified every bit one. This, and more, we volition explore in the Edgar Degas The Dance Class analysis beneath.

The Dance Course (1874) by Edgar Degas;Edgar Degas, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Beneath, nosotros will start with the contextual analysis, giving a brief overview of the Impressionist motion and why Degas painted his famous dance grade scenes. We volition then provide a formal analysis taking a closer look at The Trip the light fantastic toe Class painting itself, shining a lite on the subject area thing and Degas' utilise of stylistic elements like color and brushwork, which was such a prominent part that made many Impressionistic paintings as nosotros accept come to empathise them over time.

Artist	Edgar Degas
Engagement Painted	1874
Medium	Oil on canvas
Genre	Genre painting
Catamenia / Movement	Impressionism
Dimensions	83.5 x 77.2 centimeters
Series / Versions	It has a twin painting titled The Ballet Grade (c. 1871 – 1874) housed at the Musée d'Orsay, Paris
Where Is Information technology Housed?	Metropolitan Museum of Fine art (MET), New York City, United states of america
What It Is Worth	It was initially bought for Fr 5, 000 in 1874 by Jean-Baptiste Faure, who deputed the artwork.

Contextual Analysis: A Cursory Socio-Historical Overview

Before we look at some of the possible reasons why Degas chose to create The Dance Class painting, of which in that location were too many others with the like subject field matter, including the "twin" painting called The Ballet Grade (c.1871 to 1874) at present housed in Paris at the Musée d'Orsay, we will provide a brief historical overview of the Parisian art scene during the nineteen^th century and the importance of Impressionism versus the traditional Bookish art of the Salon.

The Ballet Grade (c.1871 to 1874) past Edgar Degas;Edgar Degas, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Some other examples from Degas' dancing and ballerina themed paintings include The Dancing Form (1871), Foyer de la Danse (1872), Ballet Rehearsal (1873), Rehearsal on Stage (1874), Fin d'Arabesque (1877), and The Vocalist with the Glove (1878), amongst others.

The Importance of Impressionism

During the xix^th century in Paris the main manner for artistic exhibitions, which were primarily paintings, was through the Salon. The Salon was role of the Academy of Fine Arts in France, in French known as the Academie des Beaux-Arts. The Salon was exhibited from 1667 and was an annual and biennial exhibition.

Due to the conservative and Academic practices and rules of how art was supposed to look, including how paintings were distinguished co-ordinate to a hierarchy of standards, of which History paintings – usually of religious or mythological subjects – were at the elevation, many artists could not exhibit their works at the Salon.

Among these were the Impressionist painters like Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Alfred Sisley, Camille Pissarro, Berthe Morisot, as well as Edgar Degas; they eventually started their ain exhibition through their group chosen the Sociéte Anonyme Coopérative des Artistes Peintres, Sculpteurs, Graveurs ("Cooperative and Bearding Association of Painters, Sculptors, and Engravers").

Cover of the catalog of the first Impressionist exhibition in 1874; unknown / desconocido / inconnu, Public domain, via Wikimedia Eatables

The group of artists started exhibiting during 1874 in the Frenchman, Felix Nadar'southward studio, he was a photographer and writer amongst other accolades. There were reportedly around thirty artists who exhibited here.

A few well-known artists did not choose to join this anonymous club exhibition, namely, Édouard Manet, whose Le déjeuner sur 50'Herbe (1863) painting made quite the impression in the Salon exhibition due to its non-traditional style and subject thing.

Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe (" Tiffin on the Grass") (1863) by Édouard Manet;Édouard Manet, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Understanding that the Salon exhibitions were important, if not crucial, for artists of the time will highlight how controversial the Impressionists' exhibitions were because they went confronting convention and tradition and paved their own route. The group of artists exhibited until effectually 1886, having had effectually viii exhibition shows.

The Impressionists' style was vastly different from that of the Academic painting styles before them.

Artists painted in the en plein air style, which ways "outdoors" in French, and depicted scenes of everyday life and people. This was based on a new mode of perceiving life and its transitory moments, translating it with bold areas of colour. This color would in turn depict how the lite savage on the subject field matter painted.

It is important to note that the Impressionists were all dissimilar in their individual styles and at that place were artists who did not identify as "Impressionist", which is a term given to the grouping by the fine art critic Louis Leroy after he viewed Impression, Sunrise (1872) past Monet. Another term the Impressionists went by was the "Independents".

Impression, Sunrise (1872) past Claude Monet;Claude Monet, Public domain, via Wikimedia Eatables

While some Impressionists painted en plein air style, others explored the everyday lifestyles, postures, and poses of people engaging in a multifariousness of acts from people bathing, frequenting cafés, and as we meet in Degas' artworks, ballet dancers either rehearsing, stretching, or conversing with other dancers.

He depicts a moment in time, in tune, and in the song of various female person dancers and singers. He was remembered for always studying their movements that would menses in natural ease, besides spotting the spontaneous aspects of how a dancer would move.

Degas and Dance

Degas loved to dance and this was a theme in well-nigh of his paintings. He apparently visited the Paris Opéra, the Palais Garnier, on numerous occasions to picket the Ballet shows and visited behind the scenes where the girls would rehearse. For Degas, the ballet world, its dancers, and their many movements became his subject matter.

He is famously quoted from his discussion with Ambroise Vollard, who was an art dealer in Paris, talking about how people perceived him; he said that people called him "the painter of dancing girls". He continued to say that "information technology has never occurred to them that my chief interest in dancers lies in rendering movement and painting pretty clothes".

The Dance Grade painting was deputed by Jean-Baptiste Faure, who was an Opera baritone, in 1873. Faure too collected art and Degas' paintings constituted a large part of his drove. When Degas completed the painting for Faure in 1874, the art collector likewise loaned the painting to the Impressionist exhibition in 1876, which was the Impressionists' second exhibition. The painting was also titled Examen de danse.

Some other notable effigy frequenting Degas's dance paintings is Jules Perrot. He was a ballet dancer also as a ballet primary. His presence in Degas' paintings indicates that he was instructing the ballet dancers. We see Perrot's same countenance in Degas' other painting The Ballet Class.

LEFT: Jules Perrot in The Dance Class (1874) by Edgar Degas; Edgar Degas, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons | RIGHT: Jules Perrot in The Ballet Class (1871-1874) by Edgar Degas;Edgar Degas, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Degas and Photography

Photography was some other important influencing factor on Degas' artworks, specially relating to the limerick of his paintings. During the time Degas painted photography was a new mode of expression that enabled many to depict the world and people around them. In Paris, photography was largely made pop by Louis Daguerre, which he introduced in 1839.

It was not but for Degas that photography became a new medium, but information technology was as well new for the Impressionists. It upended the notions of what art should be, and two important aspects of this were the utilization of the cropped prototype and spontaneous representations.

We will find in numerous paintings by Edgar Degas that draw the chemical element of cropping and capturing the natural and unposed poses of people, for example, Three dancers in a do room (1873), Identify de la Concorde (1875), 50'Absinthe (1876), Dancers in Pinkish (1876), Ballettprobe (1875), and many more.

Dancers in Pink (c. 1876) by Edgar Degas;Edgar Degas, Public domain, via Wikimedia Eatables

"The Painter of Dancing Girls": Is There More to the Story?

There has been wide debate effectually why Degas painted his famous ballet dancers as it perhaps alluded to another, "darker", aspect of female person dancers. Some sources advise that the ballet dancers were likewise involved in sexual liaisons with wealthy men, otherwise knowns as "subscribers" to the theatre, referred to every bit abonnés in French. The rooms backside the stage, foyer de la danse, were reportedly where the dancers would meet these men. These rooms were also utilized for rehearsals before a show.

The men would offer forms of financial back up to ballerinas who were there that needed the work and additional support.

With this, the ballerinas tended to succumb to the men because they would be given a better lifestyle and sometimes even a meliorate office in the ballet. This reinforces the adage given to Degas as "the painter of dancing girls"; he painted more than dancing girls and showed us, the viewers, what happened when the drapery closed. Another example of this is in The Star (50'Étoile) (1878) where we run across the ballerina'south "patron" standing towards the left behind the curtain.

L'Etoile ("The Star") (c. 1878) by Edgar Degas;Edgar Degas, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Formal Assay: A Brief Compositional Overview

Below we open the drapery, so to say, and look at Edgar Degas' The Trip the light fantastic Class analysis in terms of formal elements, for instance, Degas' utilization of pigment equally a medium as well as the perspective he painted from. While this composition is not on stage, information technology is in a rehearsal studio.

Bailiwick Matter

In The Trip the light fantastic toe Course, Edgar Degas sets the scene past giving us an insider look at a few ballet dancers rehearsing while some sit down along the periphery waiting to dance or accept danced. Permit us commencement from the foreground and movement ourselves to the background.

In the foreground, towards the left, we will find two ballerinas, the one in our view is standing with her caput tilted to her left (our right).

She is busying herself with her tutu, waiting for her friend backside her, who appears to help her fix or adapt something on her tutu. We but notice her hair, upper shoulders, and face every bit she bends downwards. The two girls are unaware of united states, the viewer, and are casually going almost their business.

A shut-up of The Dance Class (1874) by Edgar Degas; Edgar Degas, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Further towards the middle-left edge of the composition is a girl wearing a black choker necklace, continuing with her back to everyone. She appears to be reading a slice of paper, completely in another world and unaware of what is around her. Nestled between this girl and the two girls nosotros mentioned we volition notice some other girl with blond hair standing and watching the scene in front of her, although nosotros cannot encounter her face, merely simply the back of her head and upper body.

Continuing only a few steps away is a noticeably taller girl with dark brunette pilus that is also hanging loose behind her. She appears to be staring out in front of her at the dancing instructor, who is Jules Perrot, but nosotros volition get to him shortly. Back to the alpine daughter, she stands with what appears to exist her left hand'due south fingers in or past her mouth, almost as a gesture of being distracted or preoccupied, listlessly lilliputian with her fingers.

Additionally, in the bottom left corner, we will notice a cello placed on the wooden floor, lying at a diagonal angle, the top tip right near the ballerina's pink-shoed foot.

A detail of The Dance Class (1874) by Edgar Degas; Edgar Degas, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

There is also a wooden music stand with a piece of sheet music placed on superlative, the four-legged stand up is placed in forepart of the cello'due south top tip. We will also notice a piano here, of which the girl to the far left is resting her left elbow.

The fundamental figure, which is more to the middle right edge of the composition, is the ballet master Jules Perrot. He is standing with his grayness-haired head slightly tilted to his right, watching a ballet dancer as she rehearses before him. This caput angle is referred to as a profil perdu, which means "lost contour" in French. This is when a person'south face up is non completely visible, by and large visible from the back of the head. This is besides a characteristic profile widely utilized.

Perrot is calm yet engaged in the activity, both his arms are lightly outstretched, his elbows aptitude, and his easily resting on his long wooden cane, which appears to exist around three-quarters of his body's length.

A detail of The Dance Form (1874) by Edgar Degas; Edgar Degas, Public domain, via Wikimedia Eatables

Perrot appears to be a short man, wearing a beige-colored suit and a red shirt underneath. Nosotros will too notice his black shoes with revealing white socks. There appears to be a white handkerchief peeking out from his left jacket pocket, the latter is quite long and hangs beneath his waistline.

The main dancer whom Perrot is observing appears mid-way between a pose, possibly a Piqué attitude pose. Her left arm is held out in front of her, her correct arm is raised higher up her head while her correct leg is lifted and aptitude out behind her, and she balances on her left leg whilst tilting her head to her looking upwards.

Moving further towards the background, we will observe various ballerinas sitting on the stands against the wall.

There are also other figures, possibly their mothers or caretakers, who seem to be waiting for the ballerinas to finish their rehearsal. Furthermore, the ballerinas sitting on the stands are all engrossed in their own activities, for example, a ballerina leans confronting the wall to the left with her hands behind her back and her head is tilted to her left watching as the ballerina adjacent to her adjusts her blackness choker.

A close-up of The Dance Form (1874) by Edgar Degas; Edgar Degas, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Well-nigh the bottom of the stands are two other ballerinas sitting, the one on the left is adjusting something on the front of her clothes while the ballerina next to her on the right watches; both her feet are turned inwards, her arms resting on her lap with a semi-slouched back. This denotes a casual and relaxed posture, possibly even boredom.

This is something nosotros see in the other ballerinas' postures too, telling us they are waiting to finish rehearsal or waiting their turn.

There is a big mirror on the left-hand side wall reflecting not only the ballet dancers merely also a window on the other side of the room, which is non included in Degas' limerick here. This window depicts an outside world and what appears to be office of the Paris cityscape. Degas gives us another sneak peek into the world outside.

An interesting fact virtually this mirror is that in Degas' The Ballet Grade, which was painted with a like layout, there is a large opening in the wall leading into another section of the room where we meet a window. This is in the same position where the mirror is in The Trip the light fantastic Grade.

LEFT: The mirror in The Trip the light fantastic toe Course (1874) by Edgar Degas; Edgar Degas, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons | RIGHT: The mirror in The Ballet Course (1871-1874) by Edgar Degas; Edgar Degas, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Next to the large mirror, on our left, is a affiche on the wall where some of the words are legible, reading "GUIL". This perhaps alludes to the opera by Gioachino Rossini called Guillaume Tell, of which Jean-Baptiste Faure, who commissioned The Dance Grade painting, played the character of Guillaume Tell.

At that place is an open up space in the bottom right corner of the composition, which further adds to the thought of the spontaneity of the depiction of the scene.

Information technology seemingly also leads the states into the studio and suggests the naturalness of the scene, equally if Degas was taking a photograph. This characteristic is well-achieved by Degas in his painting The Rehearsal (1874), where he crops the staircase on the left as well as the dancer on the right.

The Rehearsal (c. 1874) by Edgar Degas;Edgar Degas, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Colour

Color is a prominent feature in Degas' paintings, especially soft pinks, whites, and even blues – all belonging to the dancers. In The Dance Grade, Edgar Degas depicts the interior with neutral tones, there are no bright splashes of color and the composition appears easy on our gaze.

The floor is an bawdy chocolate-brown and the walls appear in an bawdy green. There are darker browns from the instruments in the foreground likewise as the mirror's wooden frame. The white outfits of the ballerinas seem to dominate the scene, with subtle hints of blues and pinks from their ribbons.

Red details in The Dance Class (1874) past Edgar Degas; Edgar Degas, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Here and there we see areas of red that break the more than neutral tones, for case, the brighter ruby-red of Perrot's shirt, the red bloom in the girl'southward hair in the foreground, and the red glaze worn by the adult female in the groundwork.

As was the custom of the Impressionist mode, we run into the more expressive brushstrokes here, frequently making the subjects appear hard to view in detail, which borders almost on "abstruse" as some sources take suggested.

An example of the brushstrokes used in The Trip the light fantastic Form (1874) by Edgar Degas; Edgar Degas, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Finale: Degas Created a Sensory Feel

Edgar Degas did not identify as an Impressionist, he often referred to himself as a "Realist" and enjoyed painting scenes of everyday life and situations, often scenes of realistic occurrences in urban and essentially modern life.

Nosotros run across this realistic outlook in many of Degas' depictions of ballet dancers and their accompanying patrons, but nonetheless, Degas also depicted the beauty of grade, color, and composition. He created a rich sensory feel through his various media of artworks, from drawings, paintings, every bit well as wax statues.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who Painted The Dance Class?

The Trip the light fantastic Class (1874) is an oil on canvas painting by Edgar Degas, who was widely known as a painting in the Impressionism art movement during the 19^th century. Nevertheless, it should be noted that Degas did not identify every bit an Impressionist in the same mode other Impressionists did. He painted more "realistic" aspects of modernistic life and not so much the en plein air, or "outdoors", depictions that many artists enjoyed at the time.

How Many Versions of Degas' The Dance Class Painting Are At that place?

Edgar Degas painted 2 paintings that appeared very similar, namely The Dance Class (1874), housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Fine art (MET) in New York City, and The Ballet Class (c. 1871 to 1874) housed at the Musée d'Orsay in Paris. Both paintings were commissioned by Jean-Baptiste Faure, just Degas apparently started working on The Trip the light fantastic Grade, which he gave to Faure.

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Source: https://artincontext.org/the-dance-class-edgar-degas/