Degas

Danseuse sur Scène (1877)

Degas developed an interest in ballet at an early age and in 1872 he made his first studies of ballet dancers. He avoided the true drama, the performance itself. Like he pictured the words of the horseracer before and after the race, he showed what happened behind the scenes in the ballet world of l’Opera. He chose subte, apparently random compositions and painted them with an unexpected approach.