Before the Ballet

1890/1892

Edgar Degas

Artist, French, 1834 - 1917

In a dance studio, two ballerinas wearing knee-length tutus and ballet slippers sit on a bench and stretch to our right while four more pose at the back of the space, to our left, in this long, horizontal painting. The scene and dancers are loosely painted so many features are indistinct. All the women have light skin and dark brown hair. Each pale, robins’ egg-blue costume has a low-cut, tightly fitting, sleeveless bodice and a full skirt. Dabs of off white, teal, and blue suggest flowers lining the deep U of the neckline at the front and down the back of each bodice. Closest to us and nearly brushing the edges of the lower right corner of the canvas, one dancer sits on the end of a wooden bench and leans down between her legs, her feet widely planted. She rests her torso on an elbow folded onto one knee as she reaches for her left foot, farther from us, with her other hand. Her hair is pulled up and her face, looking downward, is deep in shadow. Sitting behind her on the bench, to our left, a second dancer lifts her right leg, toe pointing, as she pulls on her pale pink tights. Her other leg stretches straight, pointed toe brushing the floor, in front of her. This woman’s hair hangs loose around her shoulders. The pair is brightly lit from a source to our right, and an arched area of electric blue and mustard yellow behind them is difficult to interpret. The floor, which takes up about two-thirds of the composition, is painted with dabs of teal blue, pale fuchsia pink, and caramel brown. It leads us back to the upper left corner of the painting where four more four ballerinas stand in a line. The pair to our left stands with their backs to us, facing the wall with their right legs raised to shoulder height, toes pointed. The pair to our right faces us. They also stand with their right legs raised, creating a wide angle with their standing legs. All four ballerinas bend their arms gently at the elbow, and some tip their heads toward the raised legs. The rightmost dancer is illuminated by a pair of French doors at the back corner, at the top center of the painting. The wall behind the bench is streaked with mint green over honey brown, and the wall at the back of the room is leather brown. The visible, soft brushstrokes give the image a blurred, ethereal appearance in the dimmed studio. The artist signed the painting in the lower left corner, “Degas.”

Media Options

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On View

West Building Main Floor, Gallery 83

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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    oil on canvas

  • Credit Line

    Widener Collection

  • Dimensions

    overall: 40 x 88.9 cm (15 3/4 x 35 in.)
    framed: 59.7 x 109.8 x 8.2 cm (23 1/2 x 43 1/4 x 3 1/4 in.)

  • Accession

    1942.9.19

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Private collection of Paul Durand-Ruel, Paris; sold 1913 to Peter A.B. Widener, Lynnewood Hall, Elkins Park, Pennsylvania; inheritance from Estate of Peter A.B. Widener by gift through power of appointment of Joseph E. Widener, Elkins Park; gift 1942 to NGA.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1905

  • Pictures by Boudin, Cézanne, Degas, Manet, Monet, Morisot, Pissarro, Renoir, Sisley, Grafton Galleries, London, 1905, no. 51.

1915

  • Loan Exhibition of Masterpieces of Old and Modern Painters, M. Knoedler & Co., New York, 1915, no. 22.

1981

  • Mary Cassatt and Edgar Degas, San Jose Museum of Art, 1981, no. 66, repro.

1984

  • Degas: The Dancers, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1984-1985, no. 35, repro.

1986

  • Capolavori Impressionisti dei Musei Americani, Museo e Gallerie Nazionali di Capodimonte, Naples; Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan, 1986-1987, no. 16, repro.

  • Impressionist and Post-Impressionist Masterpieces from the National Gallery of Art, Washington, State Hermitage Museum, Leningrad; State Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow, 1986, no. 9, repro.

1988

  • Degas, Grand Palais, Paris; National Gallery of Canada, Ottowa; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1988-1989, no. 305, repro.

1989

  • Impressionisti della National Gallery of Art di Washington, Ala Napoleonica e Museo Correr, Venice; Palazzo Reale, Milan, 1989, unnumbered catalogue, repro.

1990

  • Französische Impressionisten und ihre Wegbereiter aus der National Gallery of Art, Washington und dem Cincinnati Art Museum, Neue Pinakothek, Munich, 1990, no. 18, repro.

1992

  • From El Greco to Cézanne: Masterpieces of European Painting from the National Gallery of Art, Wasington, and The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, National Gallery of Greece, Athens, 1992-1993, no. 60, repro.

1996

  • Degas: Beyond Impressionism, The National Gallery, London; The Art Institute of Chicago, 1996-1997, no. 8, repro.

1999

  • Masterpieces from the National Gallery of Art, Washington, Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art; Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum, 1999, no. 24, repro.

  • Around Impressionism: French Paintings from the National Gallery of Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1999, no cat.

2011

  • Degas and the Ballet: Picturing Movement, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 2011, no. 45, repro.

2014

  • Monet, Gauguin, van Gogh...Japanese Inspirations, Museum Folkwang, Essen; Kunsthaus Zürich, 2014-2015, no. 16, repro.

2019

  • Degas at the Opera, Musée d'Orsay, Paris; National Gallery of Art, Washington, 2019-2020, no. 196, repro.

Bibliography

1915

  • Roberts, William. Pictures in the Collection of P.A.B. Widener at Lynnewood Hall, Elkins Park, Pennsylvania: British and Modern French Schools, Philadelphia, 1915: unpaginated, repro., as Le Foyer de la Danse.

1923

  • Paintings in the Collection of Joseph Widener at Lynnewood Hall. Intro. by Wilhelm R. Valentiner. Elkins Park, Pennsylvania, 1923: unpaginated, repro., as Le Foyer de la Danse.

1931

  • Paintings in the Collection of Joseph Widener at Lynnewood Hall. Intro. by Wilhelm R. Valentiner. Elkins Park, Pennsylvania, 1931: 212, repro.

1948

  • Paintings and Sculpture from the Widener Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1948 (reprinted 1959): 108, repro.

1963

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. New York, 1963 (reprinted 1964 in French, German, and Spanish): 325, repro.

1965

  • Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 38.

1968

  • National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 32, repro.

1975

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 96, repro.

1984

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 478, no. 704, color repro.

1985

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 118, repro.

1990

  • Französische Impressionisten und ihre Wegbereiter aus der National Gallery of Art, Washington und dem Cincinnati Art Museum. Exh. cat. Neue Pinakothek, Munich, 1990: no. 18 repro.

1991

  • Coman, Florence E. Joie de vivre: French Paintings from the National Gallery of Art. Washington, 1991: no. 11, repro.

  • Kopper, Philip. America's National Gallery of Art: A Gift to the Nation. New York, 1991: 197, 198, color repro.

1998

  • Fiero, Gloria K. The Humanistic Tradition: Romanticism, Realism, and the Nineteenth-Century World. Madison, 1998: no. 31.7, repro.

2019

  • Fargo, Jason. "Degas, (Creepy) Superfan." New York Times 159, no. 58,514 (November 17, 2019): AR-18, color repro.

Inscriptions

lower left: Degas

Wikidata ID

Q20190074

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