Dancer Bending Forward
1874/79
Medium
Charcoal with stumping, heightened with white and yellow pastel with stumping, on blue laid paper ruled with charcoal
Dimensions
46.2 × 30.4 cm (18 1/4 × 12 in.)
Classification
charcoal
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
16760
Art Historical Context
Edgar Degas's *Dancer Bending Forward* (1874/79) captures the graceful poise of a ballerina in mid-movement, a recurring theme in the artist's oeuvre. Created during the height of Impressionism, Degas—though often aligned with the movement—favored intimate, observational studies of modern life, particularly the world of Parisian ballet. This drawing, housed in the Art Institute of Chicago's Prints and Drawings Department, exemplifies his fascination with dancers' discipline and fluidity, rendered on blue laid paper ruled faintly with charcoal for subtle guidance. The medium—charcoal with stum...
About the Artist
Hilaire Germain Edgar Degas · 1834–1917
Hilaire Germain Edgar Degas, born on July 19, 1834, in Paris to a prosperous banking family, was the eldest of five children. His mother, Célestine Musson, a Creole from New Orleans whose father Germain Musson had roots in Haiti, died when Degas was thirteen, leaving his father Augustin and unmarried uncles to guide him. Educated at the elite Lycée Louis-le-Grand, where he earned a baccalauréat in...