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Lot Essay
fig. Edgar Degas, Danseuses, circa 1899, Private Collection.
By the late 1890s Degas had evolved an effective means of utilizing the many studies of ballet dancers he had accumulated. He kept folios filled with hundreds of primary charcoal studies, constituting an inexhaustible inventory of poses, many of which already existed in numerous permutations. These remained in his studio until his death, having been shown only to a few favored visitors, and were thereafter dispersed in the artist's studio sales. Degas frequently employed tracing to replicate a pose, thus preserving the original image, and the secondary study could then be further altered and refined, or combined with other figures. The sequential nature of this process "resulted in invention rather than repetition, in variations on a clearly stated theme rather than reiteration" (R. Kendall, Degas Beyond Impressionism, exh. cat., The Art Institute of Chicago, 1997, p. 84).
The present drawing is very likely one such primary study, and became the source of a series of subsequent works. Boldly and quickly executed in charcoal with additions of pastel, the heavy, firmly worked lines give the effect of the artist having fixed the figure's movement in stop-motion. Degas accentuated the essential counterpose of torso, arms and legs. A tracing of this image was probably used to provide the basic figural composition of the large pastel study Deux danseuses au repos (Lemoisne, no. 1324). The artist added further strips of paper along the top, bottom and right sides, shifting the central focus of the pose slightly to the left. Little by way of detail was applied to these addded strips, however, and this pastel study remained unfinished. Degas appears to have based on this a second charcoal study (Third Studio Sale, lot 225), which also shows a blank section of paper on the right side. Around this time Degas also executed a second large pastel, Deux danseuses jaune et rose (Lemoisne, no. 1323), which borrows the left-hand dancer of the primary study and elaborates on the right-hand figure, using the fuller margins as seen in Lemoisne, no. 1324).
All of the above works were drawn around 1898. Approximately two years later he turned again to the pose in the present work, and on a sheet of similar size, executed a third pastel, Danseuses (Lemoisne, no. 1367; sale, Christie's New York, 10 May 1989, lot 31; see fig.). In this final pastel Degas returns to the original composition of our primary study, completing the dancer's right foot at the bottom edge, but leaving off the additions to the sides seen in previous versions.
By the late 1890s Degas had evolved an effective means of utilizing the many studies of ballet dancers he had accumulated. He kept folios filled with hundreds of primary charcoal studies, constituting an inexhaustible inventory of poses, many of which already existed in numerous permutations. These remained in his studio until his death, having been shown only to a few favored visitors, and were thereafter dispersed in the artist's studio sales. Degas frequently employed tracing to replicate a pose, thus preserving the original image, and the secondary study could then be further altered and refined, or combined with other figures. The sequential nature of this process "resulted in invention rather than repetition, in variations on a clearly stated theme rather than reiteration" (R. Kendall, Degas Beyond Impressionism, exh. cat., The Art Institute of Chicago, 1997, p. 84).
The present drawing is very likely one such primary study, and became the source of a series of subsequent works. Boldly and quickly executed in charcoal with additions of pastel, the heavy, firmly worked lines give the effect of the artist having fixed the figure's movement in stop-motion. Degas accentuated the essential counterpose of torso, arms and legs. A tracing of this image was probably used to provide the basic figural composition of the large pastel study Deux danseuses au repos (Lemoisne, no. 1324). The artist added further strips of paper along the top, bottom and right sides, shifting the central focus of the pose slightly to the left. Little by way of detail was applied to these addded strips, however, and this pastel study remained unfinished. Degas appears to have based on this a second charcoal study (Third Studio Sale, lot 225), which also shows a blank section of paper on the right side. Around this time Degas also executed a second large pastel, Deux danseuses jaune et rose (Lemoisne, no. 1323), which borrows the left-hand dancer of the primary study and elaborates on the right-hand figure, using the fuller margins as seen in Lemoisne, no. 1324).
All of the above works were drawn around 1898. Approximately two years later he turned again to the pose in the present work, and on a sheet of similar size, executed a third pastel, Danseuses (Lemoisne, no. 1367; sale, Christie's New York, 10 May 1989, lot 31; see fig.). In this final pastel Degas returns to the original composition of our primary study, completing the dancer's right foot at the bottom edge, but leaving off the additions to the sides seen in previous versions.