Edgar Degas work on Ballet Dancers

Examples of Edgar Degas work on ballet dancers:

Name of Work: WAITING
Date: 1880 - 1882

This image consists of a young girl and a old woman who are sitting next to eachother. The dancer(young girl) is very similar to the woman sitting next to her as the woman would have done something perhaps like this when she was younger.. The young girl is making an entrance to the room whereas the woman is making her exit from the room. The umbrella gives us a sense of where they are going and the direction of the event.




Name of Piece: THE DANCE FOYER AT THE OPERA.
Date: 1872

Degas shows a single moment of rehearsal  The dancer takes up her position on the left foreground of the image where she awaits instructions from her master on the right foreground of the picture. Some dancers watch the single dancer getting ready to dance as others go about their business. Behind the main dancer on the left foreground a leg is stretched  through the door, this was an instant snapshot creating an illusion The proportions of the room, the sharp drawing and the soft harmonious light filled atmosphere give the picture a calm,classic quality.




Name of Piece: THE REHEARSAL
Date: 1873 - 1878

This image is an airy, light filled scene but more daring in its effects. In the right foreground a dancer sits in a workaday pose while an elderly woman fixes another dancers costume. The dancer in the right foreground who is getting her costume fixed is split in two cut off by the edge of the painting. The cut offs in the painting is very well done and thought out. The staircase blocks out one dancer only showing her feet while the top of the picture cuts out another dancers upper body only showing her feet as she comes down the stairs to perform.




Name of Piece:  THE REHEARSAL ON STAGE
Date: 1874

Degas is less concerned with the glamour of the theatre in this painting. In the middle-ground the master is involved in his work as the dancers try and perform beautifully. In the wings the dancers are more relaxed ans one girl stretches having no sign of balletic elegance. Another girl adjusts the strap on her shoe while the third holds onto the stage resting her feet. On the right middle-ground there are two men who show no interest on whats going on on the stage.

Name of Piece: TWO DANCERS ONSTAGE

Date: 1874

Degas was very much a studio artist, he carefully worked out the compositions of the painting he was planning on doing. he wandered around backstage, making sketches and taking photos. His designs were created by integrating individual figures and groups. This makes it hard to believe that the scenes he depicted in his paintings did not actually exist. The pictures consist of two dancers the same two dancers from the "rehearsals onstage". There is no ironic comment on the contrast between stage illusion and reality.





Name of Piece: THE DANCE CLASS
Date: 1874

Degas worked hard to portray that there is such a thing as a male ballet dancer and in this picture he uses "James Perrot" a famous ballet dancer in his old age. In the centre of the picture there is the man leaning on a stick which he uses to call the attention of the dancers by beating it off the ground. The man brings the eye path to him first but the direction of the floorboards brings our eyes to the obedient pupil. Our eye is then led by t he perspective to the back of the room where a girl with the blue sash fixes her dress, it then leads to the cluster of girls where a mother consoles her daughter. In the foreground there is a small dog at the feet of the ballet dancer nearest to the viewer.





Name of Piece; DANCER POSING FOR A PHOTOGRAPH
Date: 1875

In the early 1870s Degas did a creative work of ballet subjects. He explores the effects of light coming from behind subjects and figures. in the background the icy quality of light coming through the translucent curtains create a chilliness and bareness to the dance studio. The dancer in the photo is striking a pose in front of a mirror, the edge of the mirror positioned at the right foreground juts out. Yet again in this picture the use of the edge of the picture makes the viewer create there own eye-path for the rest of the mirror shape.





Name of Piece: THE STAR
Date: 1877

This painting is different to most of Degas work, the reason is he captures an image during a performance and not during the dancers rehearsing or exercising. The viewpoint is high as Degas was looking down on the dancer from a height. Behind the dancer in the foreground there are dancers waiting in the wings for there turn. There is also a man in the left background of the picture  in which we can only see his lower body and not his face, this creates a sense of suspense and wonder to the viewer. The use of pastels is done effectively by Degas as he captures the fluffiness and translucent effect of the dancers tutu.





Name of Piece: DANCER WITH BOUQUET CURTSEYING
Date: 1877

This picture is of a ballet dancer after she has performed, she is close up to the foreground acknowledging the audiences applause.  In the background both left and right the dancers and orientals are  posed statusquesly at a discreet distance behind her. A dancer appears to be stretching and scratching where another steps out impatiently trying to receive her applause.






Name of Piece:  DANCERS IN BLUE
Date: 1889

Degas experimented during the 1890s with some color prints and oil painting on landscapes. In this late period Degas style changed radically. the figures in the picture are large and are viewed up closely filling the page unlike the other previous work done by Degas where he had plenty of space around the subject in the picture. The closeness and scale of the dancers make it hard to see what the whole scene looks like, the figures are adjusting there costumes before they go onstage.The color palette used is very limited as the color of the dancers skin is contrasted by the colors used on the dancers dresses and the set behind them.