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Loose brushstroke oil portrait of a ballet dancer with her back to the viewer.

The painting is constructed of loose, suggestive brushstrokes in yellow, orange, red, and blue. In the foreground, a dancer stands with her heels together and toes pointed out on a gray-brown floor. Facing a vibrant yellow wall, the left side of her face is just visible in profile. She wears pink slippers and a red tutu. Her long light brown hair cascades down her back, and her left arm is raised, bent at the elbow. In the upper righthand corner of the frame, another dancer is seen in the background wearing a white dress with a red sash.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
1943.232
People
Hilaire-Germain-Edgar Degas, French (Paris, France 1834 - 1917 Paris, France)
Previously attributed to Unidentified Artist
Title
Ballet Dancer
Other Titles
Alternate Title: Ballet Dancer in the Wings / The Span
Original Language Title: Danseuse: jupe rouge
Classification
Paintings
Work Type
painting
Date
c. 1873-1900
Culture
French
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/230164

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Oil on canvas laid down to aluminum panel
Dimensions
41.3 x 32.9 cm (16 1/4 x 12 15/16 in.)
Inscriptions and Marks
  • Signed: l.r.: Degas

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
Percy Moore Turner, London. [Wildenstein & Company, New York and Paris], sold; to Grenville L. Winthrop, New York, NY, 1928, bequest; to Fogg Art Museum, 1943

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Bequest of Grenville L. Winthrop
Accession Year
1943
Object Number
1943.232
Division
European and American Art
Contact
am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu
Permissions

THIS WORK MAY NOT BE LENT BY THE TERMS OF ITS ACQUISITION TO THE HARVARD ART MUSEUMS.

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Publication History

  • James Bolivar Manson, The Life and Work of Edgar Degas, The Studio, Ltd. (London, England, 1927), p. 30 and repr. in color, pl. 64
  • Paul André Lemoisne, Degas et son Oeuvre, Paul Brame and Cesar M. de Hauke (Paris, France, 1946-1949), p. 566-7, no. 973, repr. in b/w
  • Edgar Peters Bowron, European Paintings Before 1900 in the Fogg Art Museum: A Summary Catalogue including Paintings in the Busch-Reisinger Museum, Harvard University Art Museums (Cambridge, MA, 1990), p. 105, repr. as no. 334
  • Marjorie B. Cohn and Jean Sutherland Boggs, Degas at Harvard, exh. cat., Harvard University Art Museums/Yale University Press (Cambridge and New Haven, 2005), p. 43, repr. in color as fig. 21; no. 5, p. 98

Exhibition History

  • For Students of Art and Lovers of Beauty: Highlights from the Collection of Grenville L. Winthrop, Harvard University Art Museums, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 04/16/2004
  • Degas at Harvard, Harvard University Art Museums, Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Cambridge, 08/01/2005 - 11/27/2005

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Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of European and American Art at am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu