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拍品專文
As the paradigmatic painter of modern life among the Impressionists, Degas often represented scenes of urban entertainment, documenting the burgeoning nightlife in nineteenth-century Paris. Although the spectacles of the theater and the world of the ballet were painted by several artists in his circle, no other painter brought this environment so brilliantly to life. Degas was fascinated by every aspect of the ballet, both on and off-stage. As one art critic wrote in the Gazette des Beaux-Arts:
The ballet dancer deserved a special painter, in love with the white gauze of her skirts, with the silk of her tights, with the pink touch of her satin slippers, their soles powdered with resin. There is one artist of exceptional talent whose exacting eye has captured on canvas or translated into pastel or watercolor and even, on occasion, sculpted the seductive bizzarreties of such a world. It is Monsieur Degas, who deals with the subject as a master, and knows precisely how a ribbon is tied on a dancer's skirt, the wrinkle of the tights over the instep, the tension the silk gives to ankle tendons. (Quoted in R. Gordon and A. Forge, Degas, New York, 1988, p. 183)
Degas illustrated every aspect of dance from rehearsal to performance, resulting in more than fifteen hundred works in various media. That dance captivated Degas is not surprising. It served as pretext for the depiction of movement, color, energy, human exertion; at the same time, it provided an unparalleled opportunity for naturalistic description. Perhaps more importantly, the art of dance offered a metaphor for the art of painting:
The dance was supremely and self-evidently an art of the body. It was also chaste, artificial, the upshot of rigorous preparation and practice. Repetition took place in the dance studio tirelessly. It was not improvised but practiced in the extreme sense, to the point of pain and deformation. When a dancer returned to a position again she was like a model taking a pose; but also like a painter, making a drawing, repeating it, tracing it, learning it by heart. And when she performed, her performance was effortless in its appearance, filled with an abstract joy. (Ibid., p. 159)
The ballet dancer deserved a special painter, in love with the white gauze of her skirts, with the silk of her tights, with the pink touch of her satin slippers, their soles powdered with resin. There is one artist of exceptional talent whose exacting eye has captured on canvas or translated into pastel or watercolor and even, on occasion, sculpted the seductive bizzarreties of such a world. It is Monsieur Degas, who deals with the subject as a master, and knows precisely how a ribbon is tied on a dancer's skirt, the wrinkle of the tights over the instep, the tension the silk gives to ankle tendons. (Quoted in R. Gordon and A. Forge, Degas, New York, 1988, p. 183)
Degas illustrated every aspect of dance from rehearsal to performance, resulting in more than fifteen hundred works in various media. That dance captivated Degas is not surprising. It served as pretext for the depiction of movement, color, energy, human exertion; at the same time, it provided an unparalleled opportunity for naturalistic description. Perhaps more importantly, the art of dance offered a metaphor for the art of painting:
The dance was supremely and self-evidently an art of the body. It was also chaste, artificial, the upshot of rigorous preparation and practice. Repetition took place in the dance studio tirelessly. It was not improvised but practiced in the extreme sense, to the point of pain and deformation. When a dancer returned to a position again she was like a model taking a pose; but also like a painter, making a drawing, repeating it, tracing it, learning it by heart. And when she performed, her performance was effortless in its appearance, filled with an abstract joy. (Ibid., p. 159)