art-Degas.com
Edgar Degas 1834-1917
Edgar Degas - Dancer with a Bouquet of Flowers 1878
 Dancer with a Bouquet of Flowers |
From Rhode Island School of Design Museum of Art:
In this investigation of light, form, and movement, footlights set aglow a young dancer with a bouquet at center stage. Behind her stand two groups of ballerinas, who are depicted with lengthy passages of bright orange, blue, and green pastel punctuated by the occasional dot of a bright flower. As a foil to these brilliant colors, Degas bathed the immediate foreground a balcony with spectator in shadowy brown and black gouache. The spectator’s blue earring relates the foreground to the vibrantly hued passages of the stage. Degas began this composition with a monotype and then covered it with pastel. He affixed a strip of paper at the sheet’s lower edge in order to add the figure and her dramatic fan, which leaves one to wonder if they were compositional afterthoughts.