展品專文
Known to many as the painter of dance, Degas focused on the ballet throughout his career. His life-long commitment to this subject matter allowed him to develop his balletic vocabulary through its application to paintings, drawings, as well as sculpture. As a draughtsman, his skills were rooted in his time spent at the Académie and his practice of sketching from living models. Bolstered by this background, Degas sought above all to depict the mutable nuances of the dancers’ bodies.
The theme of the dancers had entered Degas' works almost incidentally, in his 1869 painting L'orchestre de l'Opéra (Lemoisne no. 182; Musée d’Orsay). That picture, showing Degas' musician friends playing their instruments, featured dancers in the background, as though this group portrait were instead a snapshot taken during a performance of the ballet. In 1872, Degas returned to the theme with another painting that was subsequently owned by the Havemeyers, Ballet de Robert le Diable (Lemoisne no. 295; The Metropolitan Museum of Art). From that point onwards, he became increasingly interested in avoiding the grandeur of the spectacle of the ballet and the prima ballerina, and instead focused on the minor players, on rehearsals, on the goings-on behind the scenes.
Degas does just this in the present picture, La Leçon de danseuse. The viewer is positioned behind the curtain, peering into a dance class. By no means are these the stars of the ballet, one would see on stage during a show. Instead, Degas is choosing to focus on the beginners, carefully practicing their newly learned moves and taking note of one another’s form. Degas truly gives an inside look into the beauty of ballet, which goes much further beyond the main stage. He is giving the viewer the full story of how one becomes a master at their craft.
By the 1880s, Degas attained an international reputation for his signature theme after his participation in several of the 1870s Impressionist exhibitions where he showcased dancer subject pictures. In 1880, during the period that La Leçon de danseuse was executed, the critic Jules Claretie was moved to enthuse: “The ballet dancer deserved a special painter, in love with the white gauze of her skirts, with the silk of her tights, which 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 bizarreries 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, London, 1988, p. 183).
The theme of the dancers had entered Degas' works almost incidentally, in his 1869 painting L'orchestre de l'Opéra (Lemoisne no. 182; Musée d’Orsay). That picture, showing Degas' musician friends playing their instruments, featured dancers in the background, as though this group portrait were instead a snapshot taken during a performance of the ballet. In 1872, Degas returned to the theme with another painting that was subsequently owned by the Havemeyers, Ballet de Robert le Diable (Lemoisne no. 295; The Metropolitan Museum of Art). From that point onwards, he became increasingly interested in avoiding the grandeur of the spectacle of the ballet and the prima ballerina, and instead focused on the minor players, on rehearsals, on the goings-on behind the scenes.
Degas does just this in the present picture, La Leçon de danseuse. The viewer is positioned behind the curtain, peering into a dance class. By no means are these the stars of the ballet, one would see on stage during a show. Instead, Degas is choosing to focus on the beginners, carefully practicing their newly learned moves and taking note of one another’s form. Degas truly gives an inside look into the beauty of ballet, which goes much further beyond the main stage. He is giving the viewer the full story of how one becomes a master at their craft.
By the 1880s, Degas attained an international reputation for his signature theme after his participation in several of the 1870s Impressionist exhibitions where he showcased dancer subject pictures. In 1880, during the period that La Leçon de danseuse was executed, the critic Jules Claretie was moved to enthuse: “The ballet dancer deserved a special painter, in love with the white gauze of her skirts, with the silk of her tights, which 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 bizarreries 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, London, 1988, p. 183).