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The Ballet from "Robert le Diable"

1871
On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 815
When Degas made this picture in 1871, Giacomo Meyerbeer’s opera Robert le Diable was forty years old and feeling its age—as reflected by the man at center, indifferent to the action and directing his binoculars at the audience. But Degas was fond of the opera, and particularly of the scene depicted here, from the third act, in which nuns arise from the dead and dance seductively amid the ruins of a moonlit monastery. The painting was exhibited in early 1872, the date inscribed on the canvas; Degas later executed a larger version (Victoria and Albert Museum, London) for Jean-Baptiste Faure, who starred in the opera.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: The Ballet from "Robert le Diable"
  • Artist: Edgar Degas (French, Paris 1834–1917 Paris)
  • Date: 1871
  • Medium: Oil on canvas
  • Dimensions: 26 x 21 3/8 in. (66 x 54.3 cm)
  • Classification: Paintings
  • Credit Line: H. O. Havemeyer Collection, Bequest of Mrs. H. O. Havemeyer, 1929
  • Object Number: 29.100.552
  • Curatorial Department: European Paintings

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Seated Woman in Bonnet and Shawl
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At the Café des Ambassadeurs, Edgar Degas French, Etching, softground, drypoint, and aquatint; fifth (final) state; canceled plate
At the Café des Ambassadeurs
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Greek Landscape
Edgar Degas
1856
On Stage III, Edgar Degas French, Softground etching,drypoint, and roulette on wove paper; fourth state of five
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