{"secondaryobjectnumber":null,"periodterms":[],"creditline":"Bequest of Henry K. Dick, Class of 1909","caption":"Edgar Degas (1834–1917, born and died Paris, France), Dancers, ca. 1899. Pastel with charcoal; 58.8 x 46.3 cm, 79.5 x 67.3 x 6.3 cm (frame). Bequest of Henry K. Dick, Class of 1909 (x1954-13)","cultureterms":[{"id":2031609,"culture":"French"}],"type":"artobject","dimensionsproposed":"","terms":[{"id":2053187,"term":"pastels","aatid":300076922,"termtype":"Classification"},{"id":2031609,"term":"French","aatid":300111188,"termtype":"Culture"},{"id":2088280,"term":"women","aatid":300025943,"termtype":"Subject"},{"id":2051964,"term":"drawings","aatid":300033973,"termtype":"Classification"},{"id":2055657,"term":"figures (representations)","aatid":300189808,"termtype":"Subject"},{"id":2089658,"term":"ballet dancers","aatid":300236566,"termtype":"Subject"},{"id":2159723,"term":"arabesques","aatid":300010206,"termtype":"Subject"},{"id":2168316,"term":"Pastel","aatid":300013080,"termtype":"Materials"},{"id":2045804,"term":"charcoal","aatid":300012862,"termtype":"Materials"},{"id":2044168,"term":"tracing paper","aatid":300014161,"termtype":"Materials"}],"geography":[],"dimensionelements":[{"element":"frame","type":"Height","units":"centimeters","dimension":"79.53"},{"element":"frame","type":"Width","units":"centimeters","dimension":"67.30"},{"element":"frame","type":"Depth","units":"centimeters","dimension":"6.34"},{"element":"Overall","type":"Height","units":"centimeters","dimension":"58.80"},{"element":"Overall","type":"Width","units":"centimeters","dimension":"46.30"}],"markings":"Stamp in red ink, lower left: Degas [Lugt 658]","accessionyear":"1954-01-01","newaccession":0,"makers":[{"id":5560,"displayname":"Edgar Degas","displaydate":"1834–1917; born and died Paris, France","datebegin":1834,"dateend":1917,"prefix":null,"suffix":null,"role":"Artist","displaymaker":"Edgar Degas, 1834–1917; born and died Paris, France","displayorder":1}],"datecomputed":1899,"signed":null,"restrictions":null,"classification":"Drawings","packages":[{"packageid":195743,"name":"PUAM_Impressionism and Post-Impressionism"},{"packageid":195744,"name":"PUAM_Women in Art"},{"packageid":265624,"name":"Prison Teaching Initiative Project"},{"packageid":196260,"name":"EDU_Test Jan 27"},{"packageid":278831,"name":"10282025-DAY1-ONVIEW"},{"packageid":206417,"name":"image_descriptions_top250"},{"packageid":167646,"name":"web_highlights"},{"packageid":181959,"name":"web_2020_K4-6"},{"packageid":197269,"name":"web_highlights -revised 2021"},{"packageid":182970,"name":"P&D_Drawings_Watercolors"},{"packageid":192818,"name":"web_PalmerSquareOrnaments"},{"packageid":207234,"name":"SAB_Gala2021"},{"packageid":185608,"name":"image_descriptions_artmaking"},{"packageid":194459,"name":"PUAM_Watercolors & Pastels"},{"packageid":204177,"name":"web_whitman"},{"packageid":267450,"name":"Web_CA_2025_European"},{"packageid":225374,"name":"Gallery_02-05(Pavilion1)-European [3]"}],"catalograisonne":null,"classifications":[{"id":2053187,"classification":"pastels"},{"id":2051964,"classification":"drawings"}],"exhibitions":[{"exhibitionid":1667,"citation":"Degas: A New Vision, National Gallery of Victoria (June 24–September 18, 2016); The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (October 16, 2016–January 16, 2017)","isvirtual":true,"begindate":"2016-06-24","enddate":"2017-01-16","uri":"https://artmuseum.princeton.edu/art/exhibitions/1667"},{"exhibitionid":961,"citation":"An Educated Eye: The Princeton University Art Museum Collection (Friday, February 22, 2008 - Sunday, June 15, 2008)","isvirtual":true,"begindate":"2008-02-22","enddate":"2008-06-15","uri":"https://artmuseum.princeton.edu/art/exhibitions/961"},{"exhibitionid":1033,"citation":"European Drawings from Neo-Classicism to Impressionism (Tuesday, December 04, 1990 - Sunday, January 06, 1991)","isvirtual":true,"begindate":"1990-12-04","enddate":"1991-01-06","uri":"https://artmuseum.princeton.edu/art/exhibitions/1033"},{"exhibitionid":1046,"citation":"Nineteenth-Century Pastels, Drawings, Watercolors (Complement to Cezanne Exhibition) (Saturday, February 01, 1992 - Sunday, April 05, 1992)","isvirtual":true,"begindate":"1992-02-01","enddate":"1992-04-05","uri":"https://artmuseum.princeton.edu/art/exhibitions/1046"},{"exhibitionid":732,"citation":"Degas (Tuesday, February 09, 1988 - Sunday, January 08, 1989)","isvirtual":true,"begindate":"1988-02-09","enddate":"1989-01-08","uri":"https://artmuseum.princeton.edu/art/exhibitions/732"}],"cultures":[],"primaryimage":["https://media.artmuseum.princeton.edu/iiif/3/collection/x1954-13"],"displaytitle":"Dancers","displayculture":null,"displaymaker":"Edgar Degas, 1834–1917; born and died Paris, France","captionhtml":"Edgar Degas (1834–1917, born and died Paris, France), Dancers, ca. 1899. Pastel with charcoal; 58.8 x 46.3 cm, 79.5 x 67.3 x 6.3 cm (frame). Bequest of Henry K. Dick, Class of 1909 (x1954-13)","displaydate":"ca. 1899","medium":"Pastel with charcoal","media":[{"id":15153,"uri":"https://media.artmuseum.princeton.edu/iiif/3/collection/x1954-13","isprimary":1,"rank":1,"mediatypeid":1,"mediaviewtype":"(not assigned)","restrictions":null,"caption":"Bruce White Photography"},{"id":15154,"uri":"https://media.artmuseum.princeton.edu/iiif/3/collection/x1954-13_DET1","isprimary":0,"rank":2,"mediatypeid":1,"mediaviewtype":"(not assigned)","restrictions":null,"caption":"Bruce White Photography"},{"id":15155,"uri":"https://media.artmuseum.princeton.edu/iiif/3/collection/x1954-13_DET2","isprimary":0,"rank":3,"mediatypeid":1,"mediaviewtype":"(not assigned)","restrictions":null,"caption":"Bruce White Photography"}],"displayperiod":null,"extended_content":false,"campuscollections":"false","bibliography":[{"boilertext":"Princeton University Art Museum: Handbook of the Collections (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Art Museum, 2013)","citation":"Princeton University Art Museum: Handbook of the Collections (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Art Museum, 2013), p. 344-345","date":2013,"id":1994,"uri":"https://search.worldcat.org/title/865020505"},{"boilertext":"Richard Kendall and Jill Devonyar, Degas and the ballet: picturing movement, (London: Royal Academy of Arts, 2011). ","citation":"Richard Kendall and Jill Devonyar, Degas and the ballet: picturing movement, (London: Royal Academy of Arts, 2011). , p. 13 (color illus.), p. 243 (color illus.); p. 242-245; cat. no. 118","date":2011,"id":1180,"uri":"https://search.worldcat.org/title/707968653"},{"boilertext":"\"Recent acquisitions\", Record of the Art Museum, Princeton University 14, no. 1 (1955): p. 17-19.","citation":"\"Recent acquisitions\", Record of the Art Museum, Princeton University 14, no. 1 (1955): p. 17-19., p. 19","date":1955,"id":3782,"uri":"https://www.jstor.org/stable/3774235"},{"boilertext":"19th and 20th century French drawings from the Art Museum, Princeton University: an introduction, (Princeton, NJ: Distributed by Princeton University Press, 1972).","citation":"19th and 20th century French drawings from the Art Museum, Princeton University: an introduction, (Princeton, NJ: Distributed by Princeton University Press, 1972)., pp. 62, 92, cat. no. 33; p. 63 (illus.)","date":1972,"id":5277,"uri":"https://search.worldcat.org/title/886677081"},{"boilertext":"Jean Sutherland Boggs, Degas: [an exhibition held at the] Galeries nationales du Grand Palais, Paris, 9 February-16 May 1988, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, 16 June-28 August 1988, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 27 September 1988-8 January 1989, (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art; Ottawa: National Gallery of Canada, 1988).","citation":"Jean Sutherland Boggs, Degas: [an exhibition held at the] Galeries nationales du Grand Palais, Paris, 9 February-16 May 1988, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, 16 June-28 August 1988, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 27 September 1988-8 January 1989, (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art; Ottawa: National Gallery of Canada, 1988)., p. 572, no. 359 (color illus.)","date":1988,"id":1602,"uri":"https://search.worldcat.org/title/369305144"},{"boilertext":"Linda Muehlig, \"The Rochester dancers: a late masterpiece\", Porticus: the journal of the Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester 9 (1986): p. 2-9.","citation":"Linda Muehlig, \"The Rochester dancers: a late masterpiece\", Porticus: the journal of the Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester 9 (1986): p. 2-9., p. 7, fig. 5","date":1986,"id":5585,"uri":"https://search.worldcat.org/title/435632714"},{"boilertext":"George T. M. Shackelford, Degas, the dancers, (Washington, D.C.: National Gallery of Art, 1984).","citation":"George T. M. Shackelford, Degas, the dancers, (Washington, D.C.: National Gallery of Art, 1984)., cat. no. 52; p. 115-118; p. 117 (color illus.);","date":1984,"id":5588,"uri":"https://search.worldcat.org/title/11187199"},{"boilertext":"Anne E. Maheux, Degas pastels, (Ottawa: National Gallery of Canada, 1988).","citation":"Anne E. Maheux, Degas pastels, (Ottawa: National Gallery of Canada, 1988)., p. 38; fig. 15, 15a (both color)","date":1988,"id":5589,"uri":"https://search.worldcat.org/title/17233980"},{"boilertext":"Daniel Wildenstein, A loan exhibition of Degas for the benefit of the New York Infirmary, April 7-May 14, 1949 at Wildenstein..., (New York: Wildenstein and Co., Inc.?, 1949).","citation":"Daniel Wildenstein, A loan exhibition of Degas for the benefit of the New York Infirmary, April 7-May 14, 1949 at Wildenstein..., (New York: Wildenstein and Co., Inc.?, 1949)., no. 90","date":1949,"id":5590,"uri":"https://search.worldcat.org/title/221462075"},{"boilertext":"Princeton University Art Museum: Handbook of the Collection (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2007)","citation":"Princeton University Art Museum: Handbook of the Collection (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2007), 292-93 (illus.)","date":2007,"id":474,"uri":"https://search.worldcat.org/title/191864564"},{"boilertext":"Jill DeVonyar and Richard Kendall, \"Dancers by Edgar Degas,\" Record of the Princeton University Art Museum 66 (2007): p. 30-40.","citation":"Jill DeVonyar and Richard Kendall, \"Dancers by Edgar Degas,\" Record of the Princeton University Art Museum 66 (2007): p. 30-40., p. 30, fig. 1; p. 37, fig. 9","date":2007,"id":2998,"uri":"https://www.jstor.org/stable/20442627"}],"nowebuse":"False","periods":[],"department":"Prints and Drawings","attribute_groups":[{"id":2199321,"term":"European Art","termtype":"Collecting Area"},{"id":2199327,"term":"Prints and Drawings","termtype":"Collecting Area"}],"daterange":"A.D. 1850-1900","dateend":1904,"depicted":[],"titles":[{"title":"Dancers","titletype":"Published","displayorder":1}],"hasimage":"true","creditlinerepro":"","objectnumber":"x1954-13","inscribed":null,"texts":[{"texttype":"Online","textpurpose":"Handbook Entry","textentryhtml":"\r\nPastel was Edgar Degas’s preferred medium late in his career. Inexpensive, light, and flexible, it allowed for endless technical experimentation and offered the aging artist a degree of manual control that the paintbrush could not. Crucially, pastel also allowed him to work simultaneously as a draftsman and colorist and thereby collapse the traditional academic distinction between line and color.

\r\nThe subject of the ballet, which Degas had pioneered in the 1870s, dominated these late works. Compared to his earlier work on the theme, however, they have been stripped of any anecdotal interest, the focus no longer on behind-the-scenes specificities of dance production or its social context. Here, Degas has eliminated nearly all background information, restricting himself to the vaguest suggestion, as if filtered through the haze of memory, of a staggered series of cutout stage flats, a convenient pretext for an abstract array of colors and linear arabesques. He zooms in on his subject, concentrating on only three dancers and representing them at three-quarter length, lending them an almost ancient monumentality and gravity in the process. Rather than illustrate a specific dance or rehearsal, the poses and gestures of which might correlate to the codified lexicon of the ballet, Degas treats his dancers as elements in an abstract pictorial configuration, flattening and compressing them into a single entity whose pinwheel array of bent arms moves to some obscure, stately rhythm. In their somnolent attentiveness to their own bodies and psychological isolation from each other and the viewer, the dancers bear a striking resemblance to his late bathers.

\r\nSuch echoes between subjects are not surprising given that Degas’s late work was overwhelmingly a private studio affair. His art became increasingly self-referential and introspective, as he traced, recycled, and altered his favorite motifs from drawing to drawing, allowing him to experiment with different compositional arrangements and color schemes. Typical of the artist’s late graphic techniques, Dancers began as a monochromatic charcoal drawing that he built up with as many as four or five interpenetrating layers of pastel. He applied the pastel both wet and dry, probably using fixative and steam intermittently to keep the colors pure and distinct. Evocative of the shimmering heat and artificial lighting of the theater, these highly saturated, synthetic colors were intensified through complementary, hot-and-cold contrasts, most notably between coral reds and aqua greens and between oranges and royal and powder blues. Applied in insistently vertical and diagonal striations, Degas’s pastel strokes work both to model forms and to erode the boundaries between dancers, costumes, and surrounds, so that the image appears to dissolve slowly even as it gains in material substance. Enhancing this corrosive effect, Degas also burnished areas of the pastel, forcing the medium into the interstices of the support, producing tiny pits and craters in the process. Dancers is both viscerally tactile and optical in its appeal, as Degas exploits to maximum effect the coarse, friable qualities of the medium, presenting a richly textured, densely fractured and accretive surface, one that appears to be the product of remote, ineluctable forces that are more geological or chemical than human.

","remarks":null},{"texttype":"Online","textpurpose":"Multivocal Label","textentryhtml":"

\n\tDegas’s Dancers depicts a gathering of people in motion, but not in performance. I am most intrigued by the faces and hands. One dancer adjusts her hair and clothing, while the others move about hurriedly—backstage happenings that many dancers know well. However universal such a moment may be, I wonder about the who, what, and where not represented here. Current conversations in the fields of dance and Black feminist studies offer exciting opportunities to engage with and build context around this drawing. While we admire Degas’s figures, we can also use scholar Marisa J. Fuentes’s method of “reading along the bias grain” to consider what concurrent nineteenth-century dance identities, traditions, and forms are omitted or hidden from view. For example, Dancers was completed around the time George Washington Smith (ca. 1820–1899) died. Smith was a mixed-race performer and teacher from Philadelphia, and the first prominent American male ballet master.\n

\n

\n\tMichael J. Love, Interdisciplinary Tap Dance Artist\n

","remarks":"EUR2_02-05_WLA-Day 1 Cataloguing "},{"texttype":"Online","textpurpose":"Provenance","textentryhtml":"Collection of the artist until death; [Galeries Georges Petit], Paris, "Atelier Edgar Degas" First Sale, May 6-8, 1918, lot 275. Purchased, probably from above sale, by\nGustave Pellet, Paris (1859–1919); his son-in-law, Maurice Exsteens (1887–1961). Henry K. Dick (1886-1953); bequeathed to Princeton University Art Museum, 1953.","remarks":null}],"datebegin":1894,"sortnumber":"1954 13x","published_date":"2026-02-11 08:25:45.392368","objectid":9449,"dimensions":"58.8 x 46.3 cm (23 1/8 x 18 1/4 in.)\r\nframe: 79.5 x 67.3 x 6.3 cm (31 5/16 x 26 1/2 x 2 1/2 in.)","on_view":true}