Degas and His Dancers: Representation to Expression

 Degas and His Dancers: Representation to Expression

Edgar Degas is one of the foremost examples of the Impressionist art movement. He grew up visiting the Louvre in Paris, and began his painting career interacting with the works of the artists who came before him. He met the other painters who would become integral to Impressionism--Manet and Renoir--and began to shift his own work from traditional history paintings. Even as he shifts his style to more Impressionist tendencies, Degas maintains a strict academic process and portrayal of his subjects. In his early work his detailed intention is evident. However, as he continues to develop as an artist his paintings become more adventurous--shifting from strict representation to subjective expression. 

Dancers are the theme that encompasses Edgar Degas’ catalogue of work. He demonstrates a fascination with the body of the working woman--portraying with intention and realism the life behind the stage. Degas spent an enormous amount of his time at the Paris Opera. Even when he withdrew from the larger social scene for a period later in his life, he continued his connection to the Opera and the subject of the dancer. Degas sketches and paints countless dancers and works to execute his depictions with precision, yet he also develops and explores distinct methods of portrayal. Degas’ approach to his ballet oil paintings demonstrates his shift as an artist from academic and formal portrayal to a contemporary and unconventional depiction. This transition is seen in how he changes his paintings one detail at a time--from brush strokes, to background,  to perspective, to canvas, to color. 

The Dancing Class, Edgar Degas, 1870, oil on wood, 7 3/4 x 10 5/8 in. Metropolitan Museum of Art. 

The Dancing Class shows Degas’ early formality in his depictions of the backstage scenes of the Paris Opera. He uses delicate brushwork to realistically portray the fineness of the dancers’ hair, the bow of the violin, and the tulle of the tutus. The dancers are posed--poised to display how their bodies can work as dancers. Degas portrays turned out feet from the dancer in the center, a backbend from the girl directly behind her, and the criss-crossed feet of the dancer to the far right of the scene. This painting also demonstrates his attention to the innovation of photography by presenting a cut off frame with only a portion of the piano showing. He continues this type of framing throughout his career. Each part of this painting, from the watering can in the left corner to the door cracked upon in the back, conveys Degas’ studious observation of his subjects.

The Rehearsal of the Ballet Onstage, Edgar Degas, 1874, oil on paper, 21 3/8 x 28 3/4 in. Metropolitan Museum of Art. 

Degas in The Rehearsal of the Ballet Onstage shows how he pursues the candid moments in his work. The dancers surrounding the man in black are fixing their hair, their shoes. Rather than rehearsing and performing, Degas includes the unglamorous moments--something he becomes more courageous in as his career continues. Degas continues to use his photographic frame, cutting off the dancer on the left edge. He demonstrates his process of innovation in this painting by lessening the clarity of the background. The brush strokes of the wings are grainy and loose rather than the specific and refined strokes seen in The Dancing Class. The background becomes ambiguous and mysterious rather than clear and defined.

The Dance Class, Edgar Degas, 1874, oil on canvas, 32 7/8 x 30 3/8 in. Metropolitan Museum of Art. 

The Dance Class displays Degas’ willingness to alter reality for his artistic portrayal. Degas shows a specific room in a specific place with specific people in The Dance Class, but the room is not realistic because of his use of perspective. Degas uses line and brush strokes to add his own academic style to the classroom he paints. His brush strokes continue to be tight and specific, seen in the detailed bodices of the dancers. He also continues to include dancers in all different poses, focusing light on the dancer moving in the center, but overshadowing her potential as the central subject of the painting by crowding the space with other dancers and onlookers.  

Dancers in the Rehearsal Room with a Double Bass, Edgar Degas, 1882-1885, oil on canvas, 15 3/8 x 35 1/4 in. Metropolitan Museum of Art. 

Degas furthers his play with perspective by extending the size of his canvas, relating the length of his canvas to his use of the double bass, an instrument that has participated in his paintings before, but never as the focal point. Degas uses pastels to accentuate the dancers’ tutus and maintains his study of the shiny pointe shoes adorning the dancers’ feet. The dancers’ in his paintings sustain their preparation without noticing their observer--Degas showcases his reputation as a fixture at the Opera. The audience may not see the behind-the-scenes, but Degas does. And he can invite his viewer into this mysterious world. Dancers in the Rehearsal Room with a Double Bass acts as an invitation to the viewer--take a look down the hallway and into the rehearsal. Degas slowly and specifically innovates with his traditional subject of the dancer, by using a specially sized canvas. 

Dancers, Pink and Green, Edgar Degas, 1890, oil on canvas, 32 3/8 x 29 3/4 in. Metropolitan Museum of Art. 

Twenty years after The Dancing Class, in Dancers, Pink and Green, Degas exhibits a culmination of his willingness and ability to innovate his depictions throughout his career. He continues to use a limited color palette, but instead of simple tans, browns, and whites, he uses vivid and vibrant pastels. The dancers have green tutus--Degas withdraws from the white rehearsal tutus and introduces emerald green. Instead of fine brush strokes he finesses texture and form. He continues to realistically represent the dancers’ body, but now they are not as posed. Instead of demonstrating their special skills as dancers, Degas shows their practical behind-the-scenes preparation before they perform. The background in this painting sharply contrasts with his formerly crisp and clear walls. Degas changed as an artist, he is no longer rigidly representational, but gracefully expressive--a theme that will continue as he works until his death in 1917.