Lot Essay
This drawing is a preparatory study for the painting Le danseur Perrot, assis, circa 1875 (Lemoisne, vol. II, no. 366; sale, Christie's, London, July 3, 1979, lot 43). Jules Perrot (1810-1892) was the leading male dancer and choreographer of the Romantic era. He partnered Marie Taglioni and danced at the Théatre Impérial de l'Opéra, Paris, until 1834, when he left after a disagreement with the management and toured Europe with the ballerina Carlotta Grisi, who later became his wife. Returning only occasionally to Paris, he performed his ballets abroad, working with the London Opera between 1842 and 1848 and serving in the prestigious post of ballet master in St. Petersburg from 1851 to 1861. He finally returned to Paris with hopes of a reconcilliation with the Opéra, but no accord was reached. By the time Degas first met him, probably in 1874, he was 64, semi-retired, and conducted only occasional classes.
In the two versions of Le classe de danse de M. Perrot, the first of which Degas began in 1873 and completed in 1874-1875, the second of which he painted in 1874 (Lemoisne, vol. II, nos. 341 and 397), Perrot is depicted standing, with hands propped on his time-beating stick. In his youth Perrot was described as large-chested with handsome, slender legs. In the dance class paintings Perrot is silver-haired but still vigorous, and is clearly in charge of the young dancers who flock around him. In the present drawing he is seated, holding a cane instead of his ballet master's stick, and appears more aged, somber and frail, but no less sharp-eyed and patriarchal. Lemoisne ascribed a date circa 1875 to the oil painting of Perrot seated. The drawing was probably done from life and served as the basis for the painting; it is in fact several inches larger than the painting. More recently, Richard Thomson (see The Private Degas, Arts Council of Great Britain, exhibition catalogue, pp. 32-33) has redated both works circa 1880. Perrot is clearly older than he appears in the mid-1870s and the portrait may well have been done on the occasion of the ballet master reaching his seventieth year.
In the two versions of Le classe de danse de M. Perrot, the first of which Degas began in 1873 and completed in 1874-1875, the second of which he painted in 1874 (Lemoisne, vol. II, nos. 341 and 397), Perrot is depicted standing, with hands propped on his time-beating stick. In his youth Perrot was described as large-chested with handsome, slender legs. In the dance class paintings Perrot is silver-haired but still vigorous, and is clearly in charge of the young dancers who flock around him. In the present drawing he is seated, holding a cane instead of his ballet master's stick, and appears more aged, somber and frail, but no less sharp-eyed and patriarchal. Lemoisne ascribed a date circa 1875 to the oil painting of Perrot seated. The drawing was probably done from life and served as the basis for the painting; it is in fact several inches larger than the painting. More recently, Richard Thomson (see The Private Degas, Arts Council of Great Britain, exhibition catalogue, pp. 32-33) has redated both works circa 1880. Perrot is clearly older than he appears in the mid-1870s and the portrait may well have been done on the occasion of the ballet master reaching his seventieth year.