Degas's Little Dancer

Sculpted with rich brown wax, a young ballerina stands with her arms straight, hands clasped behind her back, and one foot in front of the other on a square wooden base. Her body is angled to our left in this photograph. Both feet are splayed outward, and her right foot is placed far in front of her left. Bangs cover her forehead, and she has a heart-shaped, upturned face with a squat nose and slightly pursed lips. Her heavy-lidded eyes are nearly closed and her hair is pulled back and tied with a wide, cream-white ribbon. She wears a fabric costume with a sleeveless, gold-colored bodice, a gray tulle skirt, and ballet slippers. Her body is sculpted from dark brown wax, and a layer of wax covers her hair, bodice, and ballet slippers.

Little Dancer Aged Fourteen, 1878–1881pigmented beeswax, clay, metal armature, rope, paintbrushes, human hair, silk and linen ribbon, cotton and silk tutu, linen slippers, on wooden base
overall without base: 98.9 x 34.7 x 35.2 cm (38 15/16 x 13 11/16 x 13 7/8 in.) weight: 49 lb. (22.226 kg)
National Gallery of Art, Washington, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon

1 of 12

Study in the Nude of Little Dancer Aged Fourteen (Nude Little Dancer), c. 1878–1881pigmented beeswax, plaster core, metal and wood armatures, on plaster and wooden bases
overall without base: 69.5 x 29.3 x 30.3 cm (27 3/8 x 11 9/16 x 11 15/16 in.) overall (wood base): 3.5 x 48 x 31.1 cm (1 3/8 x 18 7/8 x 12 1/4 in.)
overall (plaster base): 5 x 34.6 x 26.8 cm (1 15/16 x 13 5/8 x 10 9/16 in.)
National Gallery of Art, Washington, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon

2 of 12

Fourth Position Front, on the Left Leg, c. 1885/1890pigmented beeswax, metal armature, cork, on wooden base
overall without base: 60.3 x 37.8 x 34.1 cm (23 3/4 x 14 7/8 x 13 7/16 in.)
height (of figure): 56.8 cm (22 3/8 in.)
Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon

3 of 12

A long, brightly lit room is filled with at least nine young ballerinas in robin’s egg-blue dance costumes and pale pink shoes in this wide, horizontal painting. They all have light skin and brown or dark blond hair. The studio is lit from the left, and more light pours in through two windows toward the back. The wall closest to us is mint green with brown wainscoting covering the lower half, and a small mirror hanging a short distance down the wall. The walls of the space farther from us and the scuffed, worn floor are both painted with tan layered with washes of moss green and denim blue. A dancer in the lower left faces us and sits near a cello lying on the floor. The instrument’s curved upper body and neck emerge from the tutu near her left hip, on our right. She leans forward with her right arm, on our left, draped across her lap, and she rests her head on the other hand, propped up on her elbow. We look slightly down on her so only see the top of her head and the point of her nose. She wears a red jacket with her ice-blue, knee-length tutu spread around her. Her splayed feet are cropped by the bottom edge of the canvas. In the center are two dancers, one seated and the other standing. The seated girl is perched on a wooden chair with the back of her tutu draped over its top. She also wears a petal-pink jacket dotted with darker mauve. She gazes at the girl in front of her. That girl stands with her back to us, bowing her head slightly as she adjusts the bow of her emerald-green belt at the small of her back. At least six more dancers sit or stand along the far wall, in the upper right corner of the composition. One looks down at her tutu spread wide between her hands, and another holds a canary-yellow fan up to her face. The features of this group are loosely painted, making them indistinct. The artist signed the lower right, “Degas.”

The Dance Lesson, c. 1879oil on canvas, overall: 38 x 88 cm (14 15/16 x 34 5/8 in.)
framed: 59.7 x 108.3 x 5.1 cm (23 1/2 x 42 5/8 x 2 in.)
National Gallery of Art, Washington, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon

4 of 12

The Dance Class (Ecole de Danse), c. 1873oil on canvas, 47.6 x 62.2 cm (18 3/4 x 24 1/2 in.)
Trustees of the Corcoran Collection (William A. Clark Collection)

5 of 12

The Curtain, c. 1880pastel over charcoal and monotype on laid paper mounted on board
sheet: 29 x 33.3 cm (11 7/16 x 13 1/8 in.)
National Gallery of Art, Washington, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon

6 of 12

Three pale-skinned ballet dancers wearing orange and dark turquoise costumes stand together on a stage in this square composition, which is painted with gouache and drawn with pastel over a monotype print. The dancers are close together near the center of the drawing, between two scrims representing trees, bushes, and grass on the theater set. A backdrop beyond suggests bushes and a tan-colored mountain under a blue sky. Two ballerinas face away from us. The dancer to the left has long, copper-red hair, and the one to the right has long brown hair. That second dancer leans onto one pointed toe. The third dancer, also with brown hair, is closer to and faces us, but she bends forward to adjust one shoe, and her face is hidden behind the stage setting. All three have peach-colored flowers in their hair, and their costumes have knee-length tutus with alternating layers of orange and turquoise. Swag sleeves lie across the dancers' upper arms from their low-cut bodices, and all three wear pale pink ballet slippers. The scene is drawn and painted with loose, visible strokes of paint and pastel, making many details indistinct. The artist signed the lower left corner, “Degas.”

Ballet Dancers, c. 1877pastel and gouache over monotype
overall: 29.7 x 26.9 cm (11 11/16 x 10 9/16 in.)
framed: 46.6 x 43.5 x 6.3 cm (18 3/8 x 17 1/8 x 2 1/2 in.)
National Gallery of Art, Washington, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Collection

7 of 12

We look slightly down and across a stage, as if from the wings, at a ballet performance with ballerinas to our left and the audience to our right in this vertical print. The artist has added strokes in pastel in some areas, as for the dancers’ pink tights and pointed toe shoes. The whole scene is loosely rendered, either with pastel or in the monotype print on which the artist drew. There are at least three ballerinas lined up in a row moving away from us, along the left edge of the paper. Their dark hair is pulled up and, for the woman farthest from us, two pink flowers adorn her hair. They wear costumes with silvery-white bodices and flaring, knee-length tutus. An area streaked with pine green and brown in the upper left corner could be a curtain behind the dancers, and people wearing black watch from red box seats across the stage from us. The surface of the stage itself is a blend of charcoal gray and rose pink, and the edge is lined with white to our right. The audience is a made up of a few peach dots within strokes and smudges of black. More gold and brick-red box seats fill the wall opposite us. There is a black silhouette along the right edge of the paper, with a bulge near the bottom right corner perhaps indicating the shoulder of an onlooker from the wings, next to us. The artist signed the work with vibrant blue near the lower right corner, “degas.”

Dancers at the Old Opera House, c. 1877pastel over monotype on laid paper
overall: 21.8 x 17.1 cm (8 9/16 x 6 3/4 in.)
framed: 35.5 x 31.1 x 3.8 cm (14 x 12 1/4 x 1 1/2 in.)
National Gallery of Art, Washington, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Collection

8 of 12

Six pink-skinned ballerinas stretch of practice in this horizontal pastel drawing. The scene is roughly sketched so some details, like the women’s faces, are indistinct. They all have brown hair and costumes with sleeveless bodices and knee-length tutus. Three dancers cluster close to us. Two at the front have tutus shaded with peacock blue and amethyst purple and dotted with spring green. The bodices of these two and the one standing behind them are copper orange. The woman to our right holds both hands to the small of her back. Another touches her hair with both hands, and the third stands with her feet apart in fourth position, toes pointing outward, and hands clasped gracefully down in front of her. The other three dancers wear pale pink bodices and tutus that match the color of their skin. Taking up the left half of the composition and moving slightly back in space, one dancer leans forward with one arm raised, and the other two bend double to brush one hand by their feet. The floor is tawny brown. The background is loosely drawn with strokes of lime green, pale pink, teal blue, and sand brown. The artist’s name appeared in the lower left corner, “Degas.”

Ballet Scene, c. 1907pastel on greenish transparent tracing paper
overall: 76.8 x 111.2 cm (30 1/4 x 43 3/4 in.)
National Gallery of Art, Washington, Chester Dale Collection

9 of 12

Paul MatheyEdgar Degas, 1882graphite on paperboard
overall: 48.2 x 31.5 cm (19 x 12 3/8 in.)
National Gallery of Art, Washington, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon

10 of 12

Dancer Seen from Behind and Three Studies of Feet, c. 1878black chalk and pastel on blue-gray laid paper
overall: 45.6 x 59.8 cm (17 15/16 x 23 9/16 in.)
National Gallery of Art, Washington, Gift of Myron A. Hofer in memory of his mother, Mrs. Charles Hofer

11 of 12

We look down onto a shadowy stage with a ballerina and a man in this black and white work on paper. The man stands in the lower left corner of the composition wearing a knee-length jacket and resting his wrists on a tall stick in front of his body. Though his face and head are lost in deep shadow, it seems that he looks toward the ballerina to our right. Up on her toes en pointe, her body faces us but her arms are raised and angled toward the upper left corner of the composition. She turns her upper torso and head to gaze in the direction of her hands. Lighting comes from the front edge of the curving stage and illuminates the man’s pants and undersides of his arms, the dancer’s legs, tutu, and face, and the front part of the stage. The space behind the people is lost in shadow but is marked by strokes and smudges. In the upper left corner the names of the artists are scratched onto the ink that had coated the surface of the printing plate: “Lepic” and “Degas.”

Edgar Degas, executed in collaboration with Vicomte Ludovic Napoléon LepicThe Ballet Master (Le maître de ballet), c. 1874monotype heightened and corrected with white chalk or wash
plate: 56.5 x 70 cm (22 1/4 x 27 9/16 in.)
sheet: 62 x 85 cm (24 7/16 x 33 7/16 in.)
National Gallery of Art, Washington, Rosenwald Collection

12 of 12

Title goes here