Dancers in their Dressing Room
c. 1876
Medium
Etching in black on cream laid paper
Dimensions
Image/plate: 15.8 × 11.5 cm (6 1/4 × 4 9/16 in.); Sheet: 32.2 × 24.5 cm (12 11/16 × 9 11/16 in.)
Classification
etching
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
133143
Art Historical Context
Step into the intimate backstage world of 19th-century Paris with Jean Forain's *D in their Dressing Room*c. 1876). This etching captures the everyday lives of ballet performers in a dressing room, a subject that fascinated Forain, a French artist closely associated with the Impressionists. Influenced by Edgar Degas, Forain often depicted the theater and music hall scenes, revealing the unglamorous reality behind the glamour of performance. Created shortly after the Franco-Prussian, the work reflects the vibrant cultural revival in Belle Époque Paris, where ballet stars like those of the Opéra...