The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of March 28, 2024

Dancers

Dancers

c. 1896
(French, 1834–1917)
Sheet: 55.7 x 41.4 cm (21 15/16 x 16 5/16 in.)
Catalogue raisonné: Lemoisne 1249
Location: not on view

Did You Know?

Degas joined six separate irregularly shaped sheets of paper to make this work, and their connections are faintly visible on its surface.

Description

Degas depicted the ballet in more than 1,000 paintings, prints, pastels, and sculptures. He preferred private, offstage moments to glamorous curtain calls or artfully constructed compositions. Here, three dancers stretch together in the wings, unaware of the viewer’s presence. Powdery layers of yellow, orange, and pink pastel create a rough surface characteristic of Degas’s late work in the medium. He invented special techniques that allowed him to build layer upon layer of color with varying degrees of opacity and transparency. This pastel’s rich surface and intense, vibrating palette is the result of such innovative methods.
  • 1896-1897
    Studio of the artist, sold to Durand-Ruel, Paris
    1897-1898
    (Durand-Ruel, Paris, transferred to Durand-Ruel, New York
    1898-1900
    (Durand-Ruel, New York, sold to Mr. and Mrs. Jeptha H. Wade, Cleveland, OH)
    1900-1916
    Mr. [1857–1926] and Mrs. [1857–1917] Jeptha H. Wade II, Cleveland, given to the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
    1916-
    Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Illustrated Catalogue of the Cleveland Art Loan Exposition. Exh. cat. Cleveland: Cleveland School of Art, 1913. Mentioned: no. 45C
    Catalogue of the Inaugural Exhibition. Exh. cat. Minneapolis: Minneapolis Institute of Arts, 1915. Mentioned: p. 36, no. 169
    "The Wade Collection." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 4, no. 1 (1917): 3-12. Mentioned: p. 3 www.jstor.org
    “Lists of Objects in the Exhibition.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 16, no. 9 (1929): 159–75. Mentioned: p. 167 www.jstor.org
    Milliken, William M. “The Twentieth Anniversary Exhibition of the Cleveland Museum of Art.” Art News 34, no. 37 (June 13, 1936): 7-14. Mentioned: p. 14
    Wilenski, R. H. Modern French Painters. New York: Reynal and Hitchcock, 1940 Mentioned: p. 336
    Lemoisne, Paul André. Degas et son œuvre. Paris: Brame et de Hauke, 1946. Mentioned and reproduced: vol. 3, 726–27, no. 1249
    Armitage, Merle. Dance Memoranda. Freeport, NY: Books for Libraries Press, 1946. Reproduced: p. 166
    Francis, Henry Sayles. Works by Degas. Exh. Cat. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1947. Mentioned: p. 10, 18, no. 49; Reproduced: pl. XLII
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958. Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 509 archive.org
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966. Reproduced: p. 174 archive.org
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969. Reproduced: p. 174 archive.org
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. Reproduced: p. 214 archive.org
    Breitman, Ellen. Art and the Stage. Exh. Cat. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1981. Mentioned: p. 45-48, no. 25; Reproduced: p. 46
    Henning, Edward B. Creativity in Art and Science, 1860-1960. Exh. Cat. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1987. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 100
    DeGrazia, Diane and Carter E. Foster. Master Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Exh. cat. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2000. Mentioned: p. 1; Reproduced: p. 2
    DeGrazia, Diane. “The Evolution of a Collection: Drawings in Cleveland.” Master Drawings 38, no. 3 (Fall 2000): 249-60. Mentioned: p. 249; Reproduced: p. 251 www.jstor.org
  • Nineteenth-Century French Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 20-April 30, 2023).
    Pure Color: Pastels from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 19, 2016-March 19, 2017).
    Mary Cassatt and the Feminine Ideal in Nineteenth-Century Paris. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (October 14, 2012-January 20, 2013).
    Masterworks from The Phillips Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 20-May 29, 2005).
    Time Stands Still: Muybridge and the Instantaneous Photography Movement. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (February 15-May 16, 2004).
    Master Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 27-October 17, 2000).
    Object Lessons: Cleveland Creates an Art Museum. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 7-September 8, 1991).
    Creativity in Art and Science, 1860-1960. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 16-November 8, 1987).
    Art and the Stage. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (May 22-August 16, 1981).
    The Dance in Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (May 20-August 17, 1955).
    35th Anniversary Exhibition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 20-September 30, 1951).
    Works of Edgar Degas. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 5-March 9, 1947).
    19th and 20th Century French Art and Leonard C. Hanna, Jr. Loans. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 22-September 1, 1943).
    French Drawings and Watercolors from French Public and Private Collections. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (January 6-February 15, 1942).
    The Silver Jubilee Exhibition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 23-September 28, 1941).
    The Twentieth Anniversary Exhibition: The Official Art Exhibit of the Great Lakes Exposition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 26-October 4, 1936).
    French Art Since Eighteen Hundred. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 8-December 8, 1929).
    Inaugural Exhibition. Minneapolis Institute of Arts (January 7–February 7, 1915).
    Cleveland Art Loan Exposition. Cleveland School of Art, Kinney & Levan Building, Cleveland (November 25–December 17, 1913).
  • {{cite web|title=Dancers|url=false|author=Edgar Degas|year=c. 1896|access-date=28 March 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1916.1043