Degas, Edgar: Ballet dancers

There are many great paintings to remind us that the artists of the Impressionist age were sensitively aware of contemporary life. Among the supreme masterpieces of the century are Degas's pictures of the ballet and its dancers. The impulse towards painting the contemporary scene came to him not only from Courbet and Manet but from his friend, the critic Duranty, the exponent of the aesthetics of naturalism. Yet in the particular direction of his tastes and his conception of design he was entirely individual. To study and convey movement was a chosen task, first undertaken on the race course and then in his many pictures of the Opera, viewed from behind the scenes, in the wings, or from the orchestra stalls during a performance.

156.0K, 998 x 835	Four Dancers Painted:1899 Oil on canvas 151.1 x 180.2 cm National Gallery of Art Washington	Ballet Rehearsal Painted: 1875 Gouache and Pastel on canvas 21-3/4" x 27" George Frelinghuysen Collection New York	45.7K, 735 x 600
144.9K, 870 x 988	La classe de danse (The Dancing class) Painted: 1873-75 Oil on canvas 85 x 75 cm Musee d'Orsay Paris	The Dance Class	28.1K, 526 x 419
26.6K, 636 x 415	Mont Sainte-Victoire Seen from Les Lauves Painted: 1904-06 Oil on canvas 66 x 81.5 cm Private collection Switzerland	Danseuse assise (Seated Dancer) Painted: 1879-80 Charcoal and pastel on paper mounted on pasteboard 63.5 x 48.7 cm The Hermitage St. Petersburg	130.5K, 873 x 1162
37.9K, 640 x 350	La danseuse aux chaussons	L'etoile (The Star Dancer on Stage) Painted: 1878 Pastel on paper 60 x 44 cm Musee d'Orsay Paris	151.1K, 761 x 1100
126.9K, 1067 x 809	The Rehearsal Painted: 1873-78 Oil on canvas 41 x 61.7 cm Fogg Art Museum Cambridge	Singer with a Glove Painted: 1878 Pastel and liquid medium on canvas 52.8 x 41.1 cm Fogg Art Museum Cambridge	116.1K, 805 x 1047
43.3K, 529 x 703	The Singer in Green Metropolitan Museum of Art New York	Three Dancers in Violet Tutues (Three Dancers, Violet Skirts) Painted: 1898 Private collection	33.3K, 340 x 511
171.3K, 724 x 900	Three Ballet Dancers (One with Dark Crimson Waist) Painted: 1899 Pastel on paper 23 1/4 x 19 1/4 in Barnes Foundation