The Dancing Class: A Painting by Edgar Degas

An informal scene, carefully crafted with interesting details

Public domain image

Edgar Degas was born in Paris on 19th July 1834. He was baptized Hilaire-Germain-Edgar de Gas, but adopted the less pretentious “Degas” early in his career as an artist. His father, Auguste de Gas, was a successful banker, while his mother, Celestine Musson, came from a wealthy colonial family. Her death when Degas was only 13 was a highly painful event during his early years.

As the child of well-off parents, Degas received a sound classical education at the Lycee Louis-le-Grand and then went on to study law. However, by his own account he spent most of his time copying the masterpieces in the Louvre. Eventually he told his father that he could not go on with law, and Auguste de Gas agreed to let the 18-year-old Edgar take up a career as a painter. A room in the de Gas house was converted into a studio, and Edgar was sent to study under two now-forgotten masters — first Fe1ix-Joseph Barrias, and later Louis Lamothe.

Lamothe had been a pupil of Jean Dominique Ingres, and in 1855 Degas met the master himself, then aged 75, who gave him sound advice:

“Draw lines, young man, many lines, from memory or from nature; in this way you will become a good artist”

While respecting the tradition of the Old Masters, Degas drew his inspiration from the lively scenes of modern Paris. He is best known for his charmingly evocative pictures of the ballet dancers at the Paris Opera, rehearsing in the practice rooms or performing on stage.

A shy, awkward man, with a fetish for privacy, Degas was renowned for his aloof manner and sharp-tongued wit. He had only a few close friends, and apparently no love affairs, preferring to devote his life to art. In later years, as the daylight hurt his failing eyes, and he grew even more anti-social, he withdrew into his dimly-lit studio in Montmartre, where he worked obsessively. He died a lonely old man at the age of 83.

The Dancing Class

Degas was a frequent visitor to the Opera from 1872 until a disastrous fire destroyed the building the following year. When the huge new Opera was opened in 1875, that in turn became the focus of his attention.

This means that The Dancing Class, which was painted in 1874, was a work based on Degas’s many sketches and not an actual scene painted in situ.

With this informal picture of a lesson in a rehearsal room at the Opera, Degas made a complete break from the conventional ballet paintings of his day. Instead of depicting a famous ballerina in the costume for her best-loved role, he turned his attention to the day-to-day training of the anonymous young dancers in the chorus.

In this delightful painting, Degas captures a moment in the arduous training routine of the young ballerinas as most of the corps de ballet take a break, while the ballet-master Jules Perrot concentrates on the little dancer framed in the doorway.

Every detail is lovingly observed — from the tired dancer stretching in the far comer, to the watering can used to dampen down the dusty floorboards. But the picture as it stands today is very different from Degas’ original composition. X-rays have shown that Jules Perrot originally stood facing the back wall, while two of the foreground figures looked towards the spectator. One of these now has her back to us, while the other has been almost hidden by the addition of the girl sitting on the piano, scratching her back.

An earlier version of the same scene. Public domain image

When Degas added the girl on the piano, he strengthened the illusion of depth in the painting. The figures now form a funnel-like triangle that runs across the picture, enclosed by the dramatic perspective lines created by the floorboards and cornice. Accents of red run through the group, from the flower in the foreground dancer’s hair, to the hat of one of the lovers by the far wall.

Degas’ details often add a touch of informal humour: between two foreground figures, we catch a glimpse of a dancer twiddling her earring, while a little dog peeps out from behind a ballerina’s leg.

Degas was interested and inspired by the recent invention of photography, and there is certainly something of the “snapshot” about The Dancing Class, and that applies to both versions. The only poses are those being directed by the dancing master — it is as if Degas had walked in, clicked the shutter and walked out again.

However, there is much more artistry to his work than that — as evidenced by the need he saw to revise his work so that the final composition was more to his liking.

What we are left with is a sense of empathy between the artist and his subjects. These young girls — probably most of them from deprived backgrounds — are working hard to make names for themselves on the Paris stage, and are being made painfully aware of just how hard that work is proving to be.

You might also like to see:

[embed]Le Foyer De La Danse á l’Opéra: A Painting by Edgar Degas A painting that conveys a sense of bustle and movementmedium.com

[embed]Women Running On The Beach: A Painting by Pablo Picasso A product of his “Classical” periodmedium.com

[embed]Head Of A Girl: A Painting by Johannes Vermeer This painting inspired Tracy Chevalier to write “Girl With a Pearl Earring”medium.com

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