NARRATOR:
The odd viewpoints, cropped forms, and tilting floors in this pastel may seem as casual as a snapshot. But Edgar Degas revealed:
DEGAS [ACTOR]:
"No art is less spontaneous than mine. I must re-do the same subject ten times, twenty times.”
NARRATOR:
Throughout his long career, Degas searched for technical mastery and innovation. He experimented with novel materials and methods to capture modern life, while aspiring to the technical virtuosity of the old masters.
In this work, Degas attached at least ten pieces of paper to the original sheet, which was the central composition. He then mounted the finished patchwork on cardboard. Examining the far right of the composition, for example, and the very thin added strips, we see how subtly his compositions evolved and how carefully they were plotted. In this work Degas also achieved a remarkable variety of textures, experimenting with pastel, gouache, distemper and essence—a range of pigments applied with various binders.
Degas made more than 600 paintings, drawings, sculptures and photographs related to the dance. He frequently hired dancers to pose for him in his studio. Eventually, he compiled an extensive stock of figure drawings, which he later incorporated into paintings like this one.
Dancers in the Wings
c. 1876-1878
Edgar Degas (French, 1834-1917)
On View
Combining pastel, pastel paste, gouache, distemper (glue-based paint), and peinture à l’essence (conventional paint drained of its oil), this picture is among the most technically sophisticated in Degas’s oeuvre. Color is applied wet, with a brush, for the reverse of a stage flat at left and in rapid, liquid skeins for the ornaments in the dancers’ hair, but dry pastel, rubbed over the bare laid paper, creates an airy effect in the tutus. Degas seems to have begun the composition with the dancer in pink and built it outward, adding nine strips of paper around the edges to make room for her companion, dressed as a butterfly. This costume has been identified with a specific ballet, La Source (The Spring), danced at the Paris Opéra in the 1875–76 season.
Details
- Artist Name: Edgar Degas (French, 1834-1917)
- Title: Dancers in the Wings
- Date: c. 1876-1878
- Medium: Pastel, gouache, distemper, and "essence" on paper, mounted on board
- Dimensions: 27 1/4 x 19 3/4 in. (69.2 x 50.2 cm)
- Credit Line: Norton Simon Art Foundation
- Accession Number: M.1977.06.P
- Copyright: © Norton Simon Art Foundation
Object Information
Madame de Clermont, Paris, 1899.
[Bernheim-Jeune, Paris, stock no. 1261, by at 1914 (possibly by 1912), sold 1928 to];
[Reid & Lefevre, London, stock no. 316/28, owned jointly with M. Knoedler & Co., Paris and New York, stock no. A603, sold 15 October 1929 to];
Mrs. Edouard L. Jonas (Mrs. H. Harris Jonas, 1884–1974), Paris and New York, to;
[Wildenstein, New York, sold 2 March 1977 to];
Norton Simon Art Foundation.
[Bernheim-Jeune, Paris, stock no. 1261, by at 1914 (possibly by 1912), sold 1928 to];
[Reid & Lefevre, London, stock no. 316/28, owned jointly with M. Knoedler & Co., Paris and New York, stock no. A603, sold 15 October 1929 to];
Mrs. Edouard L. Jonas (Mrs. H. Harris Jonas, 1884–1974), Paris and New York, to;
[Wildenstein, New York, sold 2 March 1977 to];
Norton Simon Art Foundation.
A Loan Exhibition of Degas for the Benefit of the New York Infirmary
- Wildenstein & Co. (New York, N.Y.), 1949-04-07 to 1949-05-14
Exposition de Peintures de l'Ecole Impressioniste et Néo-Impressionniste
- Lucerne, 1929-02 to
[on loan]
- Fogg Art Museum, 1977-03-07 to 1977-09-26
Summer Loan Exhibition: Paintings, Drawings, & Sculpture From Private Collections
- New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1966-07-08 to 1966-09-05
19th and 20th Century French Painting form the Private collection of Mrs. H. Harris Jonas
- New York, New York School for Social Research, 1949-02-19 to 1949-03-01
Chefs-d'oeuvre de l'Art Français
- Paris, Palais National des Arts, 1937 to
[on loan] ?
- Cleveland Museum of Art, 1936 to
Texas Centennial Exposition: Paintings, Sculpture, & Graphic Arts
- Dallas Museum of Art, 1936-11-29 to
- , to
Degas
- Fogg Art Museum, 1931-05-09 to 1931-05-31
A Century of French Painting
- Wilmington, Delaware, Society of Fine Arts, 1931-02-02 to 1931-02-16
- Chicago, M. Knoedler & Co., 1931-02-24 to 1931-03-14
- Minneapolis, 1931-03-19 to 1931-04-02
Ten Masterpieces by XIXth Century French Painters
- Glasgow, Alex. Reid & Lefevre, Ltd., 1929-04 to
- London, 1929-06 to 1929-07
Exposition d'Oeuvres du XIXe et XXe siècles au bénefice de l'hôpital St.-Michel
Exposition Degas au profit de la Ligue Franco-Anglo-Américaine contre Le Cancer: Peintures, Pastels, et Dessins, Sculptures, Eaux-fortes, Lithographies et Monotypes
- Paris, Galerie Georges Petit, 1924-04-12 to 1924-05-02
Exposition d'Art Moderne
- Paris, Galerie "Les Arts", 1912 to
Exposition Centennale d'art français
- Paris, Grand Palais, 1900 to
Degas
- Paris, Musee de l'Orangerie, de Tuileries, 1937-03 to 1937-04
Honderd Jaar Fransche Kunst
- Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, 1938-07-02 to 1938-09-25
Redesigned Degas Galleries
- Norton Simon Museum, 1995-05-04 to 1997-06-01
Taking Shape: Degas as Sculptor
- Norton Simon Museum, 2017-11-09 to 2018-04-09
- Lemoisne, Paul-André, Degas et son oeuvre, no. 585 pp. 330-331
- Hüttinger, Eduard, Degas,
- Boggs, Jean Sutherland, et al., Degas, pp. 202-203, 207-208
- Browse, Lillian, Degas Dancers, p. 59, 360
- Lassaigne, Jacques, Edgar Degas, p. 33
- Dumont, Henri, Degas, pp. 46-47
- Mauclair, Camille, Edgar Degas,
- Frankfurter, Alfred, Art News, p. 11
- Mauclair, Camille, Degas, pp. 121, 167
- Art News, pp. 3, 5
- Country Life, p. 964
- Jamot, Paul, Degas, no. 105 pp. 84-85
- Alexandre, Arsène, Les Arts, p. iv
- Russoli, Franco; and Fiorella Minervino, L'opera completa di Degas, no. 753 p. 120-121
- Schacherl, Lillian, Edgar Degas: Dancers and Nudes, pp. 50-51, 123
- Lafond, Paul, Degas, opp. p. 72
- Meier-Graefe, Julius, Degas, pl. XCIX
- Hertz, Henri, Degas, pl. XII p. 48
- Borgmeyer, Charles Louis, The Master Impressionists, 1913, p. 237
- Vollard, Ambroise, Degas: Quatre-vignt-dix-huit reproductions signées par Degas, 1918,
- L'Art Moderne et quelques aspects de l'art d'autrefois, 1919, pl. 53
- Daily Record, 1929,
- Vanity Fair, 1931, p. 45
- Knowlton, Walter, Creative Art, 1931, p. sup.-52
- Lemoisne, Paul-André, La Revue de l'Art, 1936, pl. 13 p. 104
- Rouart, Denis, Degas à la recherche de sa technique, 1945, p. 18
- Schwabe, Randolph, Degas: the Draftsman, 1948, pl. 1
- Reff, Theodore, Degas: The Artist's Mind, 1976, p. 283-284, 337
- La Cronique des Arts, 1978, fig. 247 p. 56
- Shackelford, George, Degas-The Dancers, 1984, fig. 2.II p. 61
- McMullen, Roy, Degas: His Life, Times, and Work, 1984, p. 362-363
- The French Impressionists in Southern California: Paintings, Sculptures and Prints in Public Collections. A Guide Book and Catalogue, 1984, pp. 32-33
- The Great Artists: Their Lives, Works, and Inspiration, 1985, pp. 490-491
- Maheux, Anne, Degas Pastels, 1988, n. 32, fig. 11, fig. 11a. fig. 16 pp. 29, 80, 30, 31
- Rouart, Denis, Degas: In Search of His Technique, 1988, pp. 44-45
- Keller, Horst, Edgar Degas, 1988, fig. 85 p. 102
- Reff, Theodore, Metropolitan Museum Journal, 1988, p. 50, 150-151
- Masterpieces from the Norton Simon Museum, 1989, p. 147
- Kent, S., Eyewitness Art: Composition, 1995, p. 53
- Thomson, Richard, Edgar Degas: Waiting, 1995, fig. 26 pp. 42
- Schacherl, Lillian, Edgar Degas: Dancers and Nudes, 1997, pp. 51, 123
- Kendall, Richard and Jill DeVonyar, Degas and the Dance, exhibition catalogue, 2002, fig. 192, color p. 172
- Dye, Sean, The Mixed-Media Sourcebook, 2004, p. 10
- Degas: Art in the Making, 2004, fig. 26 pp. 31-32
- Campbell, Sara, Collector Without Walls: Norton Simon and His Hunt for the Best, 2010, cat. 1409 p. 403
- Multiple, Christian Lacroix, La Source et le Ballet de l'Opera, 2012, p. 31
- Tatsuya Saito, Revue de l'art, 2014, fig. 3 pp. 24-25 ; p. 25 (ill.), front and back covers (ill.)
- Le Foll, Joséphine, L'impressionnisme, 2020, none p. 184 (ill.), p. 185
- Michel Schulman, Degas Catalogue Raisonné Online, 2021, MS-288
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