Edgar Degas
French, 1834-1917

Dancers, jockeys, shopgirls, and laundresses were among the occupations Degas selected as subjects for his art. In painting, pastel, and sculpture he captured the flavor of the working lives of Parisians. In his studies of ballet rehearsals, dancers stretch, relax in the wings, or adjust costumes in familiar poses he studied on location, from models, or from photographs.

This pastel belongs to a series of images in which Degas regrouped the same few figures. Layers of intense, expressionistic color have been worked to an exceptionally high finish, with final flecks of yellow scattered over the costumes and startling blue outlines accentuating the heads. Pastel appealed to Degas because it allowed him to combine what he called “veritable orgies of color” with the directness of drawing.

Pastel on paper, about 1899
Purchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey, 1928.198