.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
Executed circa 1879, Danseuses aux contrebasses belongs to a rare and remarkable group of fan-shaped compositions through which Edgar Degas explored the possibilities of an unconventional pictorial format. Of the approximately twenty-five fan pictures known by the artist, the majority were executed between 1878 and 1885, with 1879 proving an especially fertile year. In preparation for the Fourth Impressionist Exhibition, held that spring at 28 avenue de l’Opéra in Paris, Degas conceived an entire room devoted to painted fans, inviting Camille Pissarro, Berthe Morisot, Jean-Louis Forain and Félix and Marie Bracquemond to participate. Although this ambitious scheme was never fully realised, Degas exhibited five fans alongside examples by Pissarro and Forain, marking the only occasion on which he publicly presented works in this format. The present composition, executed at precisely this moment, may well have numbered among those exhibited. Far from a decorative diversion, the fan offered Degas a novel means of investigating the relationship between movement, space and the boundaries of the picture itself.
In Danseuses aux contrebasses, Degas transforms the familiar world of the ballet into a daringly unconventional arrangement of forms. The dancers, their pale tutus punctuated by flashes of vermilion, emerge from a sweeping expanse of dark wash, while the imposing silhouettes of the double basses dominate the foreground. The instruments, ordinarily relegated to the orchestra pit, become monumental compositional devices, partially obscuring the figures and establishing a striking tension between proximity and distance. This radical cropping and the elevated viewpoint reveal the profound influence of Japanese art upon Degas, particularly the pictorial innovations of Tawaraya Sōtatsu, whose fan paintings offered similarly unexpected perspectives and asymmetrical arrangements. As Siegfried Wichmann observed, Degas was drawn not merely to the fan as an object, but to the compositional challenge presented by its unusual shape, employing the principles of Japonisme to create an extraordinary impression of spatial depth. Here, the broad, almost abstract passages of ink wash contrast with the delicate accents of pastel and the incisive strokes of black chalk, lending the scene a remarkable sense of immediacy. The dancers appear suspended between movement and stillness, their fleeting gestures caught within the emphatic arc of the composition.
In Danseuses aux contrebasses, Degas transforms the familiar world of the ballet into a daringly unconventional arrangement of forms. The dancers, their pale tutus punctuated by flashes of vermilion, emerge from a sweeping expanse of dark wash, while the imposing silhouettes of the double basses dominate the foreground. The instruments, ordinarily relegated to the orchestra pit, become monumental compositional devices, partially obscuring the figures and establishing a striking tension between proximity and distance. This radical cropping and the elevated viewpoint reveal the profound influence of Japanese art upon Degas, particularly the pictorial innovations of Tawaraya Sōtatsu, whose fan paintings offered similarly unexpected perspectives and asymmetrical arrangements. As Siegfried Wichmann observed, Degas was drawn not merely to the fan as an object, but to the compositional challenge presented by its unusual shape, employing the principles of Japonisme to create an extraordinary impression of spatial depth. Here, the broad, almost abstract passages of ink wash contrast with the delicate accents of pastel and the incisive strokes of black chalk, lending the scene a remarkable sense of immediacy. The dancers appear suspended between movement and stillness, their fleeting gestures caught within the emphatic arc of the composition.