La Classe de danse
Artist(s)
Degas Edgar
auteur
Paris (France) - Paris (France)
Others accession number
Accession number
Description
huile sur toile
Dimensions
H. 85,5 ; L. 75,0 cm.
avec cadre H. ,5 ; L. 99,3 cm
Inscription(s)
S.b.g. : Degas
Place of conservation
musée d&#;Orsay
, dans la collection Ch. W. Deschamps, Londres, livré par l&#;artiste
de à , dans la collection capitaine Henri Hill, Brighton
, Collection Hill, Londres, Christie&#;s, 25 mai, n°27
collection Goupil et Cie, Paris
, dans la collection Michel Manzi, Paris
de à , dans la collection du comte Isaac de Camondo, Paris
, accepté par l&#;Etat à titre de legs aux Musées nationaux du comte Isaac de Camondo pour le musée du Louvre (comité du 27/04/, conseil du 08/05/, arrêté du 23/11/)
, attribué au musée du Louvre, Paris
de à , musée du Louvre, Paris (exposé à partir de )
de à , musée du Louvre, galerie du Jeu de Paume, Paris
, affecté au musée d&#;Orsay, Paris
Modality of acquisition
legs
Twelfth Exhibition of pictures by modern french artists - New Bond Street - Royaume-Uni, Lon
The Dance Class
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Title:The Dance Class
Artist:Edgar Degas (French, Paris – Paris)
Date
Medium:Oil on canvas
Dimensions 7/8 x 30 3/8 in. ( x cm)
Classification:Paintings
Credit Line:Bequest of Mrs. Harry Payne Bingham,
Object Number
The Painting: In , the great opera baritone Jean-Baptiste Faure commissioned from Degas a picture depicting ballerinas of the Opera ballet corps at an examination or dance class (Pantazzi ). (Faure became a major collector of Impressionist paintings and, eventually, the owner of the largest collection of Degas’s paintings in France.) The present work was delivered to Faure in November , and Degas was paid five thousand francs for it. Faure lent it to the second Impressionist exhibition of under the title Examen de danse (Reff ; Clayson ).
At the right side of this nearly square canvas, though seemingly at the center of the room, stands the famed ballet master Jules Perrot (–), with both arms outstretched and hands resting on a long cane. With his face presented in profil perdu (literally, a lost profile, with the head at a three-quarter angleThe Ballet Class
Edgar Degas
The Ballet Class
Edgar Degas
Degas regularly went to the Paris opera house, not only as a member of the audience, but as a visitor backstage and in the dance studio, where he introduced by a friend who played in the orchestra. At that time, the opera was still housed in the rue Le Peletier and had not yet moved to the building designed by Garnier which was soon to replace it. From the s until his death, Degas's favourite subjects were ballerinas at work, in rehearsal or at rest, and he tirelessly explored the theme with many variations in posture and gesture.
More than the stage performance and the limelight, it was the training and rehearsals that interested him. Here the class is coming to an end – the pupils are exhausted, they are stretching, twisting to scratch their backs, adjusting their hair or clothes, an earring, or a ribbon, paying little heed to the inflexible teacher, a portrait of Jules Perrot, a real-life ballet master.
Degas closely observed the most spontaneous, natural, ordinary gestures, the pauses when concentration is relaxed and the body slumps after the exhausting effort of practising and the implacable rigour ofThe Ballet Class ()
Between the little ballerinas crowded together on the steps in the background and the two dancers seen in the foreground, stretches a large empty space - contrasting with the varied and busy detail of the ballerinas and their postures - in which the dancers will later perform. But now the space is occupied by the old ballet master (Jules Perrot) who stands there leaning on his wooden stick which he uses to beat the time. While a young girl in the centre of the group seems to be paying some attention to what he is saying, the rest are taking no notice.
The two dancers in the foreground are observed with a cruel and rather ironical eye. One of them, standing up and resting heavily on her ungainly feet, shows no sign of the gracefulness which she will display later on. Interestingly, X-ray analysis of the canvas shows that Degas first painted her facing towards the viewer. By changing her position to face inwards, he reinforces the impression that we are actually in the room with the dancers, who are oblivious of our presence. The other dancer, who is sitting on the piano, is twisting herself about in order to scratch her back. The sylphides of the future ar
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