Edgar Degas - Dancers Resting 1879

Dancers Resting 1879
Dancers Resting
1879 49x58cm pastelon paper mounted on cardboard
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA, USA

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From Museum of Fine Arts, Boston:
Beginning about 1870, Degas explored in his art the lives of dancers at the ballet of the Paris Opera - on stage, in rehearsal, and backstage in private moments. Here, the artist took his drawing of a seated dancer (at right) and added pieces of paper to create a larger composition, incorporating the figure of another dancer in a red shawl and the large expanse of floor in front of her. Degas left his notations - perhaps measurements of the added strips visible at right.