Dançarina (Danseuse) - Edgar Degas

 

Dançarina (Danseuse) - Edgar Degas
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Pastel montado sobre papel em placa - 73x40 - 1880-87


An exquisite example of Degas’ most iconic motif, Danseuse captures the splendor and grace of the Parisian ballet. Executed circa 1880-87, this enchanting pastel illustrates Degas’ artistic bravura in the medium and speaks of the late-nineteenth-century cultural zeitgeist.
Built by its namesake Charles Garnier and inaugurated in 1875, the Palais Garnier not only provided entertainment for the leisure classes of Parisian society, but also afforded ample opportunity for artistic study. From the 1870s, Degas frequented the venue, observing and drawing the human form in motion as well as capturing the fanciful costumes and sets that decorated the stage. Art historian and trained dancer Lilian Browse writes of Degas' "absolute faithfulness" to the "laws and conventions" of the classical dance, while Richard Kendall's survey of Degas' imagery attests to his keen observational powers as proven through the artist's known visits to the Palais Garnier, his familiarity with specific dancers in the company and the wealth of sketches and photos recording the poses, costumes and routines surrounding the ballet. Degas became such a fixture at the venue that in 1886 he congratulated the new director, stating: "You have done me so many favors, that I feel myself a little tied to your fortune and that I am about to become, as they say, one of your employees" (quoted in J. deVonyar & R. Kendall, Degas and the Dance, New York, 2002, p. 14).
From the vantage point of Danseuse, one can imagine Degas standing in the wings or seated a few rows to the left of the stage as he captures this composition. This remarkable example of Degas’ most iconic scenes underscores the artist’s profound understanding of composition and color. The atmospheric multicolored background is contrasted against the brightness and precise delineation of the dancer’s figure and costume. His deft handling of the medium is evident in the layered strokes of white, ochre and light blue, building volume and lending a tangible quality to the gauzy tutu. The brilliant application of white pigment along the figure’s limbs, neck and cheek radiate light and draw the subject to the fore, while the dark contours around the body add further clarity to the figure and build depth within the composition. The luminosity of the present work is rivaled only by museum-caliber works like the Danseuse in the Musée d'Orsay.
In tandem with his fastidious attention to form was a distinctly modern eye for composition. Typical of the artist is the unusual perspective. In the present work, Degas reduces the scope of the scene and focuses on the lone dancer. The unconventional viewpoint brings the subject to the fore, drawing us into the theater itself where one feels a part of the ballet's narrative. Such unorthodox perspectives draw on those of the Japanese woodblock prints which became fashionable in Paris during this period and notably influenced the work of Degas and his contemporaries like Toulouse-Lautrec and Van Gogh.
Deviating from the traditional Western perspective popularized during the Renaissance, Degas’ dramatic cropping produces a heightened sense of drama and immediacy in his compositions. A contemporary of Degas, the writer and critic Louis Edmond Duranty remarked about the chosen perspective of such works: "Our vantage point is not always located in the center of a room whose two side walls converge toward the back wall... nor does our point of view always exclude the large expanse of ground or floor in the immediate foreground. Sometimes our viewpoint is very high, sometimes very low; as a result we lose sight of the ceiling, and everything crowds into our immediate field of vision" (quoted in J. De Vonyar & R. Kendall, Degas and the Dance (exh. cat.), The Detroit Institute of Arts & The Philadelphia Museum of Art, 2002-03, pp. 113-14).
For Degas, repetition was a critical component of the artistic process. The present composition is the most complex and delicately rendered of a small number of related works which capture the ballerina right before taking her bow. Degas reimagines the setting of each, exploring new facets of depth and focus and adjusting the number of figures in the scene. Though this fascination with form was constant throughout his career, Degas’ focus on the human figure in motion more fully evolved in the 1870s as he began working increasingly in pastel. Conveying both the brilliance of color and the solidity of line, pastel endowed Degas with a greater sense of freedom in his work, allowing the artist to manually smudge and blend the pigment throughout the composition, as witnessed in the present work in the areas around the dancer’s tutu.
The figure in Danseuse is believed to be Marie van Goethem, the model for Degas' celebrated sculpture Petite danseuse de quatorze ans. The young dancer lived with her parents on the rue de Douai in the lower part of Montmartre, just a few blocks from the artist's studio and apartment during these years. While the present work features van Goethem at a slightly older age, her characteristic long hair, pert features and light-colored costume reflects those of the masterwork and would reappear through his later oeuvre. Taken in relation to the sculpture, Danseuse and the related sketches reflect the critical role of prolonged observation in his process. As Richard Kendall writes, "Degas' alertness to the progressive stages of the ballet dancer's formation and subsequent career in touchingly evident in a succession of his works of art. Seen together his dance images...can seem documentary, almost filmic, as he traces a variety of individuals through their early steps and nervous preliminary examinations, through the rituals of the barre, the dressing room and the rehearsal to their first stage appearance and eventual rise to stardom" (R. Kendall, op. cit., p. 18).
A rare example of this caliber in private hands, Degas’ Danseuse remains one of the most harmonious and delicately rendered works of his singular ballerinas. Widely exhibited and acclaimed throughout its history, the present work belonged to the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston for nearly 70 years.