France, 19th century / c. 1895
Frieze of Dancers
The Cleveland Museum of Art catalogs Frieze of Dancers as painting (France, 19th century · c. 1895).
The ballet is a subject Degas returned to again and again over the course of his career. Rather than public performances, he often depicted dancers behind the curtain, practicing, waiting, or, as in this painting, lacing up their shoes.
A CLOSER LOOK
The museum identifies this painting as oil on fabric and credits Edgar Degas (French, 1834–1917).
The museum's collection notes: This painting may depict a single dancer seen from four different viewpoints. The young woman is placed in an undefined setting, surrounded by mere wisps of color, applied so spontaneously that the paint ran and dripped. Degas even added the circles in the foreground with his thumb. Such audacity, while acceptable in a small sketch, must have shocked the artist's contemporaries when presented on a six-foot canvas. Equally radical is the idea of combining multiple views of a single figure. Degas's unusual presentation may have been inspired by the photographs of Eadweard Muybridge (1830-1904)
FOLLOW THE EVIDENCE
The Cleveland Museum of ArtFrieze of DancersOriginal explanation based on the sources above. Images carry their own reuse terms.