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A dimly lit ballet studio is filled with about two dozen young dancers tying on their shoes, stretching, or practicing en pointe in this horizontal painting. The girls all wear dance costumes with knee length tutus, tight bodices, and belts in canary yellow, rose pink, or royal blue. The girls all have brown or dark blond hair. The room seems to be mostly lit from windows on the wall opposite us so some of the girls’ faces are in shadow, but all appear to have light skin. Starting from the left, two dancers are visible from the waist down as they descend a spiral staircase that rises along the left edge of the canvas and off the top. To our left of center is a knot of several dancers, two of whom stand on their toes en pointe, with arms raised. Further right and closest to us, four dancers cluster around a mahogany-brown bench. Rose-pink ballet slippers are piled next to a seated dancer wearing a scarlet-red jacket over her costume. Her head is turned to our right, looking at the girl standing next to her. On the other side of the bench, another dancer bends over to reach her feet, presumably tying on her slippers. The fourth stands on the far right with her back to us, her head turned to our left to look back at the central group. More dancers practice in a room beyond, seen through a wide, squared opening in the upper right of the composition. The room we seem to be in has dark olive-green walls and the room beyond has brighter, parchment-yellow walls. The faces and some details of the costume are loosely painted so their features are indistinct. The artist signed the painting in the lower right corner, “Degas.”

Edgar Degas

The Dance Class, c. 1873

West Building, Main Floor — Gallery 83

Medium

oil on canvas

Dimensions

overall: 47.63 × 62.23 cm (18 3/4 × 24 1/2 in.)

framed: 72.39 × 87.63 × 9.53 cm (28 1/2 × 34 1/2 × 3 3/4 in.)

Credit Line

Corcoran Collection (William A. Clark Collection)

Accession Number

2014.79.710

Artists / Makers

Edgar Degas (artist) French, 1834 - 1917

Image Use

This image is in the public domain.
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Inscription

lower right: Degas

Provenance

Purchased in London 1876 by Henry Hill [1818-1889], Brighton; (his sale, Christie's, London, 25 May 1889, no. 28); purchased by Montaignac for (Michel Manzi [1849-1915], Paris); (Eugene Glaenzer [d. 1923], New York); sold 1903 to William Andrews Clark [1839-1925], New York; bequest 1926 to the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington; acquired 2014 by the National Gallery of Art.

Associated Names

Christie, Manson & Woods, Ltd.
Clark, William Andrews
Corcoran Gallery of Art
Glaenzer, Eugene
Hill, Henry
Manzi, Michel

Exhibition History

1876: Deschamps Gallery, London, April 1876, no. 131.

1877: La 3e Exposition de Peinture [Third Impressionist Exhibition], Paris, 1877, no. 38.

1959: Loan Exhibition. Masterpieces of the Corcoran Gallery of Art: A Benefit Exhibition in Honor of the Gallery's Centenary, Wildenstein, New York, 1959, unnumbered catalogue, repro., as Ballet School.

1962: Seattle World's Fair, Fine Arts Pavillion, Seattle, 1962.

1978: Edgar Degar, Acquavella Galleries, New York, 1978.

1978: William A. Clark Collection, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, 1978.

1983: La Vie Moderne: Nineteenth Century French Art from the Corcoran Gallery, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington; Columbus Museum of Arts and Sciences, Georgia; Mary and Leigh Block Gallery, Northwestern University, Evanston; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Tampa Museum; Joslyn Art Museum, Omaha; Akron Art Museum, 1983-1985, no. 41, repro., as School of Ballet (École de Danse).

1986: The New Painting: Impressionism 1874-1886, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1986.

1988: Degas, Galeries nationales du Grand Palais, Paris; Musée des Beaux-Arts du Canada; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1988-1989.

1989: The William A. Clark Collection: Treasures of a Copper King, Yellowstone Art Center, Billings; Montana Historical Center, Helena, 1989, unnumbered catalogue, repro.

2001: Antiquities to Impressionism: The William A. Clark Collection, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, 2001-2002, unnumbered catalogue, repro.

2002: Degas and the Dance, Detroit Institute of Arts; Philadelphia Museum of Art, 2002-2003, pl. 146.

2003: The Impressionist Tradition in America, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, 19 July 2003 - 18 October 2004, unpublished checklist.

2004: Degas Classico e moderno,Complesso del Vittoriano, Rome, 2004-2005, no. 26, repro.

2005: Degas, Sickert and Toulouse-Lautrec: London and Paris 1870-1910, Tate Britain, London; Phillips Collection, Washington, 2005-2006, no. 4, repro.

2008: Edgar Degas: Master of French Art, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, 2008-2009, no. 51, repro.

2011: Degas dancers at the barre: count and counterpoint, Phillips Collection, Washington, 2011-2012, no. 6, repro.

2014: Degas's Little Dancer, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 2014-2015, brochure, fig. 1.

2016: Degas: A New Vision, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne; The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, 2016-2017, unnumbered catalogue, repro.

2018: Fascination Japan: Monet, Van Gogh, Klimt, Bank Austria (BA-CA) Kunstforum, Vienna, 2018-2019, pl. 41.

2019: Degas at the Opera, Musée d'Orsay, Paris; National Gallery of Art, Washington, 2019-2020, no. 219, repro.

Bibliography

1925: Carroll, Dana H. Catalogue of Objects of Fine Art and Other Properties at the Home of William Andrews Clark, 962 Fifth Avenue. Part I. Unpublished manuscript, n.d. (1925): 184, no. 202.

1932: Corcoran Gallery of Art. Illustrated Handbook of the W.A. Clark Collection. Washington, 1932: repro. 32, 43, no. 2074, as École de Danse.

1946: Lemoisne, Paul André. Degas et son oeuvre. 4 vols. Paris, 1946-1949: 2(1946):216, no. 398, repro. 217.

1959: Corcoran Gallery of Art. Masterpieces of the Corcoran Gallery of Art. Washington, 1959: 29, repro.

1964: Wells, William. "Degas' Staircase." Scottish Art Review (1964): 15.

1990: Armstrong, Carol. Odd Man Out: Readings of the Work and Reputation of Edgar Degas. Chicago and London, 1990: 10, fig 3.

2002: Lowe, F.C. "Corcoran Archivist Tells Rest of Story." The Winchester Star (March 2002): section D.

2008: Kear, Jon. The Treasures of the Impressionists. London, 2008: 38, repro.

2009: Campbell, Sarah, ed. Degas in the Norton Simon Museum. New Haven and London, 2009: 208, fig. 28a.