Two Dancers
c. 1893–98
Medium
Pastel and charcoal, with stumping and burnishing, on tracing paper, pieced and laid down on cardboard
Dimensions
70.5 × 53.6 cm (27 13/16 × 21 1/8 in.)
Classification
pastel
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
45243
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
Edgar Degas recorded ballet dancers at rest and in motion in a variety of media, producing numerous drawings, paintings, prints, and sculptures. The subject enabled Degas to study the movement of the human form and the contortions of the body. In this pastel, the performers wait behind the curtains, in the wings of the stage, and bend at the waist, arms akimbo, in preparation for their next appearance.
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...