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Lot Essay
Composed using sumptuous layers of vibrant pastel, Danseuse à mi-corps rajustant son épaulette is an elegant example of Edgar Degas’s extensive studies of the female dancer in the quiet moments of preparation and transition before a performance. Here, a ballet dancer is seen in close-up as she quickly adjusts the sleeves of her costume, her torso and head twisting away from the viewer as she reaches across to fix the thin silk that has slipped from her shoulders. Clearly intrigued by this dynamic pose, Degas created a number of studies devoted to the movement, as well as adopting it for the central protagonist in one of his most ambitious paintings on the subject of the ballet – the monumental En attendant l’entrée en scène, now in the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. (Lemoisne, no. 1267). Executed circa 1896-1899, Danseuse à mi-corps rajustant son épaulette appears to come from the family of interrelated compositions in both charcoal and pastel that Degas produced either as studies towards the National Gallery picture, or as variations upon that theme after its completion, each work offering subtly different views of the pose as Degas modified and adjusted his approach. Purchased by Fritz and Lucy Jewett in 1976, it has remained in their collection for the past five decades.
While Degas had been fascinated by the captivating world of the ballet from the earliest stages of his career, it was during the final two decades of his life that the theme of the female dancer came to occupy his work most intensely, with the artist devoting more than three-quarters of his production in all media to the subject. Illustrating each step that lay behind the spectacle of their performances – from the arduous hours of rehearsals that shaped the dancers, to their expectant preparations as they waited in the wings, and finally, the sumptuous colours, lights, and intricate choreography of the final presentation on stage – Degas explored every facet of a ballerina’s life. He typically returned to the same pose again and again in multiple compositions, sometimes changing small elements such as the angle from which the subject was seen, or the slight tilt of the body as it leaned into a pose, as he explored its plastic possibilities. Degas himself was open about the fact that his pictures, while intended to look like snapshots showing fleeting, passing moments, were in fact the product of a great deal of investigation and rigorous execution: ‘I assure you that no art was ever less spontaneous than mine,’ he confessed (quoted in R. Kendall, ed., Degas by Himself: Drawings, Prints, Paintings, Writings, London, 1987, p. 311).
To aid him in this detailed examination of certain movements, Degas worked increasingly from models within the confines of his studio during these years, moving away from the spontaneous discoveries of life in the wings or the rehearsal room. He even went so far as to create a series of photographs of the ballet dancers in a selection of carefully composed scenes, their unconventional poses a striking contrast to the popular cartes de visite of the day, publicity shots of ballet dancers that proliferated throughout Paris during this period. At the same time, the art of the past continued to inform his approach to the figure. In Danseuse à mi-corps rajustant son épaulette, the young dancer’s left hand is propped on a hip, her right arm stretched across her body to delicately pluck at her strap with two fingers. The placement of her hand as she fixes the material echoes the celebrated sculpture from antiquity known as Diane de Gabies, traditionally attributed to the legendary sculptor Praxiteles and now in the Musée du Louvre in Paris. While the classical sculpture shows the goddess adjusting one side of her chiton with the same hand rather than crossing her torso to the opposite shoulder, the informal naturalism of this simple action must have resonated strongly with Degas, allowing him to connect his studies of the movements of dancers with the art of the past. Indeed, when asked by the celebrated American collector Louisine Havemeyer why he returned to ballet dancers so often, Degas replied: ‘Because madame, it is all that is left us of the combined movement of the Greeks’ (quoted in R. Gordon and A. Forge, Degas, London, 1988, p. 264).
While Degas had been fascinated by the captivating world of the ballet from the earliest stages of his career, it was during the final two decades of his life that the theme of the female dancer came to occupy his work most intensely, with the artist devoting more than three-quarters of his production in all media to the subject. Illustrating each step that lay behind the spectacle of their performances – from the arduous hours of rehearsals that shaped the dancers, to their expectant preparations as they waited in the wings, and finally, the sumptuous colours, lights, and intricate choreography of the final presentation on stage – Degas explored every facet of a ballerina’s life. He typically returned to the same pose again and again in multiple compositions, sometimes changing small elements such as the angle from which the subject was seen, or the slight tilt of the body as it leaned into a pose, as he explored its plastic possibilities. Degas himself was open about the fact that his pictures, while intended to look like snapshots showing fleeting, passing moments, were in fact the product of a great deal of investigation and rigorous execution: ‘I assure you that no art was ever less spontaneous than mine,’ he confessed (quoted in R. Kendall, ed., Degas by Himself: Drawings, Prints, Paintings, Writings, London, 1987, p. 311).
To aid him in this detailed examination of certain movements, Degas worked increasingly from models within the confines of his studio during these years, moving away from the spontaneous discoveries of life in the wings or the rehearsal room. He even went so far as to create a series of photographs of the ballet dancers in a selection of carefully composed scenes, their unconventional poses a striking contrast to the popular cartes de visite of the day, publicity shots of ballet dancers that proliferated throughout Paris during this period. At the same time, the art of the past continued to inform his approach to the figure. In Danseuse à mi-corps rajustant son épaulette, the young dancer’s left hand is propped on a hip, her right arm stretched across her body to delicately pluck at her strap with two fingers. The placement of her hand as she fixes the material echoes the celebrated sculpture from antiquity known as Diane de Gabies, traditionally attributed to the legendary sculptor Praxiteles and now in the Musée du Louvre in Paris. While the classical sculpture shows the goddess adjusting one side of her chiton with the same hand rather than crossing her torso to the opposite shoulder, the informal naturalism of this simple action must have resonated strongly with Degas, allowing him to connect his studies of the movements of dancers with the art of the past. Indeed, when asked by the celebrated American collector Louisine Havemeyer why he returned to ballet dancers so often, Degas replied: ‘Because madame, it is all that is left us of the combined movement of the Greeks’ (quoted in R. Gordon and A. Forge, Degas, London, 1988, p. 264).