拍品专文
Throughout the 1890s Degas frequently treated the theme of three dancers waiting in the wings positioned exactly as in this work, the first behind and above the other, arms outstretched against the flat, one leaning slightly forward, the second knees bent and the foremost in a virtual crouch. They wait, expectant and attentive, for their cue.
In several of these pastels, Degas utilizes the device of the partial view of a stage tree screening the right side of the composition, sometimes coinciding with a join in the paper, and often cropping the face or arm of one of the dancers.
But this would appear to be the only such composition where this motif appears, close-up, on the left side, with a pronounced craggy upper portion and a gentle sweep of the trunk as it curves to the bottom of the picture. Moreover, a teasing fragment of tulle is also just visible, no doubt the tutu of yet another dancer concealed and waiting in a forward wing.
This somewhat mysterious device anchors the composition and galvanizes the energetic poise and focus of the three dancers. Its looming shadowy presence serves to enhance the speckled splendor of the vivid green and pink costumes and brightly painted scenery. This echoes a literal off-stage presence, if not of menace then certainly of sinister aspect, revealed in earlier works such as Trois danseuses dans les coulisses (Lemoisne, Supplément, no. 91, sold Christie's, New York, Nov. 12, 1985, From the Collection of Harris Whittemore) to be the ubiquitous male suitor. But as is typical of late Degas, this is merely suggested, no longer affirmed:
[In these late] but important pastels of dancers and
nudes, he was gradually reducing the emphasis on line
in order to seek the pictorial. Resorting to ever more
vibrant color effects, he found in his pastels a means to
unite line and color. While every pastel stroke became
a color accent, its function in the whole was often not
different from that of the Impressionist brushstroke. His
pastels became multicolored fireworks where all precision
of form disappeared in favor of a texture that glittered
with hatchings. (J. Rewald, The History of Impressionism,
New York, 1973, p. 566)
In several of these pastels, Degas utilizes the device of the partial view of a stage tree screening the right side of the composition, sometimes coinciding with a join in the paper, and often cropping the face or arm of one of the dancers.
But this would appear to be the only such composition where this motif appears, close-up, on the left side, with a pronounced craggy upper portion and a gentle sweep of the trunk as it curves to the bottom of the picture. Moreover, a teasing fragment of tulle is also just visible, no doubt the tutu of yet another dancer concealed and waiting in a forward wing.
This somewhat mysterious device anchors the composition and galvanizes the energetic poise and focus of the three dancers. Its looming shadowy presence serves to enhance the speckled splendor of the vivid green and pink costumes and brightly painted scenery. This echoes a literal off-stage presence, if not of menace then certainly of sinister aspect, revealed in earlier works such as Trois danseuses dans les coulisses (Lemoisne, Supplément, no. 91, sold Christie's, New York, Nov. 12, 1985, From the Collection of Harris Whittemore) to be the ubiquitous male suitor. But as is typical of late Degas, this is merely suggested, no longer affirmed:
[In these late] but important pastels of dancers and
nudes, he was gradually reducing the emphasis on line
in order to seek the pictorial. Resorting to ever more
vibrant color effects, he found in his pastels a means to
unite line and color. While every pastel stroke became
a color accent, its function in the whole was often not
different from that of the Impressionist brushstroke. His
pastels became multicolored fireworks where all precision
of form disappeared in favor of a texture that glittered
with hatchings. (J. Rewald, The History of Impressionism,
New York, 1973, p. 566)