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Edgar Degas
France,
1834-1917
Danseuse à la barre
Charcoal with pastel and white chalk on paper
11 3/4 x 9 in.
The Aaron M. and Clara Weitzenhoffer Collection, 2000 |
Among the Impressionists, Degas was distinctive
for his emphasis on drawing and the human figure. The present work
is among a group of over 100 life drawings of dancers at practice
which were probably created during the early to mid 1880s from dancers
posing in Degas’s studio. Rather than studies for finished
works, these fast drawings probably served as exercises for the
artist. As in the present work, they often show traces of Degas’s
revisions of limbs and gestures and include Degas’s notes to
himself such as, here, “plus croisé [noir?] la jambe”
(“more crossed [black?] the leg”).
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