Dancers
Medium
pastel with charcoal on tracing paper mounted on paper and backed with gray board
Dimensions
{"sheet":{"height":0.557,"width":0.414}}
Classification
Drawing
Department
Drawings
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. J. H. Wade
Accession Number
1916.1043
Tags
About this artwork
Degas depicted the ballet in more than 1,000 paintings, prints, pastels, and sculptures. He preferred private, offstage moments to glamorous curtain calls or artfully constructed compositions. Here, three dancers stretch together in the wings, unaware of the viewer’s presence. Powdery layers of yellow, orange, and pink pastel create a rough surface characteristic of Degas’s late work in the medium. He invented special techniques that allowed him to build layer upon layer of color with varying de...