The Rehearsal of the Ballet Onstage

Inscription: Signed (upper left): Degas

[Charles W. Deschamps, London, by 1876; sent to him by the artist before April 1876; sold to Hill]; Captain Henry Hill, Brighton (by 1876–until d. 1882; his estate, 1882–89; his estate sale, Christie's, London, May 25, 1889, no. 29, as "A Rehearsal," for 66 gns. to Sickert); Walter Richard Sickert, London (from 1889; given to Cobden-Sickert); his second wife, Ellen Cobden-Sickert, London (until 1902; left in the care of her sister, Mrs. T. Fisher-Unwin, by summer 1898; deposited by Cobden-Sickert on January 4, 1902 with Durand-Ruel, Paris; deposit no. 10185; returned to her on January 25, 1902 in the care of Boussod, Valadon; sold on January 31, 1902 for Fr 75,373 to Boussod, Valadon); [Boussod, Valadon & Cie, Paris, 1902; stock no. 27473; sold on February 7, 1902, for Fr 82,845, to Havemeyer]; Mr. and Mrs. H. O. Havemeyer, New York (1902–his d. 1907); Mrs. H. O. (Louisine W.) Havemeyer, New York (1907–d. 1929); her son, Horace Havemeyer, New York (1929; cat., 1931, pp. 122–23, ill.)

London. Deschamps Gallery. "Twelfth Exhibition of Pictures by Modern French Artists," Spring 1876, no. 130 (as "The Rehearsal") [see Sterling and Salinger 1967].

Paris. 6, rue le Peletier. "3e exposition de peinture [3rd Impressionist exhibition]," April 1877 (as "Répétition de ballet," possibly this painting).

London. New English Art Club. "Seventh Exhibition," Winter 1891–92, no. 39 (as "Répétition," lent by Mrs. Walter Sickert) [see Sterling and Salinger 1967].

London. International Society of Sculptors, Painters and Gravers. "Exhibition of International Art," April 26–September 22, 1898, no. 116 (as "Dancers," lent by Mrs. Unwin).

Paris. Exposition Internationale Universelle. "Exposition Centennale de l'art français (1800–1889)," May, 1900–November, 1900, no. 210 (as "La répétition," lent by Mme Cobden-Sickert).

New York. M. Knoedler & Co. "Loan Exhibition of Masterpieces by Old and Modern Painters," April 6–24, 1915, no. 38 (as "The Ballet Rehearsal," possibly this picture or not in catalogue).

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The H. O. Havemeyer Collection," March 10–November 2, 1930, no. 58 [2nd ed., 1958, no. 111].

Paris. Musée de l'Orangerie. "Degas," March 1–May 20, 1937, no. 22.

Cleveland Museum of Art. "Works by Edgar Degas," February 5–March 9, 1947, no. 23.

New York. Wildenstein. "A Loan Exhibition of Degas," April 7–May 14, 1949, no. 36.

Philadelphia Museum of Art. "Diamond Jubilee Exhibition: Masterpieces of Painting," November 4, 1950–February 11, 1951, no. 73.

Kansas City, Mo. William Rockhill Nelson Gallery. "Twentieth Anniversary Exhibition: 19th and 20th Century French Paintings," December 11–28, 1953, no catalogue?

Los Angeles County Museum. "An Exhibition of Works by Edgar Hilaire Germain Degas, 1834–1917," March 1958, no. 26.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Degas in the Metropolitan," February 26–September 4, 1977, no. 13 (of paintings).

Paris. Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais. "Degas," February 9–May 16, 1988, no. 124.

Ottawa. National Gallery of Canada. "Degas," June 16–August 28, 1988, no. 124.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Degas," September 27, 1988–January 8, 1989, no. 124.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Splendid Legacy: The Havemeyer Collection," March 27–June 20, 1993, no. A212.

Paris. Musée d'Orsay. "La collection Havemeyer: Quand l'Amérique découvrait l'impressionnisme...," October 20, 1997–January 18, 1998, no. 34.

Paul Mantz. "L'Exposition des peintres impressionnistes." Le Temps (April 22, 1877), p. 3.

Alice Meynell. "A Brighton Treasure-House: The Hill Collection." Magazine of Art 5 (1882), p. 82, describes it among Hill's collection of Degas ballet pictures, "which assuredly have no charm of beauty wherewith to fascinate us".

George Moore. "Degas: The Painter of Modern Life." Magazine of Art 13 (October 1890), ill. p. 420, as "A Rehearsal"; on p. 423 describes "pictures begun in water-colour, continued in gouache, and afterwards completed in oils, and if the picture be examined carefully it will be found that the finishing hand has been given with pen and ink," which may be a reference to this picture [see Ref. Reff 1971].

Lucien Pissarro. Letter to Camille Pissarro. May 1891 [published in "The Letters of Lucien to Camille Pissarro, 1883–1903," ed. Anne Thorold, 1993, p. 212], describes seeing a Degas oil painting in Sickert's home, mentioning that it was purchased from a famous sale, possibly this picture [see Ref. Cooper 1954].

G[eorge]. M[oore]. "The New English Art Club." The Speaker (December 5, 1891), p. 677, recounts its rejection by the "Illustrated London News" because the subject matter was considered improper for its rectory circulation; notes that "upon having his drawing returned to him Degas began painting upon it in oil, very thinly—so thinly that the original drawing is still visible through the paint".

D. S. M[acColl]. "The New English Art Club." The Spectator (December 5, 1891), p. 809, calls it "a demonstration against all pedantry of technique; begun in black-and-white for an illustrated paper, it has somehow been transformed into colour by what may, for aught one can tell, be a mixture of body-colour, pastel, and oils; the effect is obtained, and that is the only law".

R. Jope Slade. "Current Art: The New English Art Club." Magazine of Art 15 (1892), p. 123, calls it "Une Répetition," lent by Mrs. Walter Sickert to the New English Art Club exhibition [see Exh. London 1891–92].

Frederick Wedmore. "Manet, Degas, and Renoir: Impressionist Figure-Painters." Brush and Pencil 15 (May 1905), ill. p. 260.

Julius Meier-Graefe. Entwicklungsgeschichte der Modernen Kunst. Vol. 2, 2nd ed. Munich, 1915, pl. 260.

Paul Lafond. Degas. Vol. 2, Paris, 1919, p. 26, calls it a replica ["un double"] of the grisaille version of this composition (Musée d'Orsay, Paris).

Julius Meier-Graefe. Degas. Munich, 1920, pp. 45–46 [English ed., 1923, pp. 60–61], dates it possibly just before the grisaille version; calls the artist's unusual angle of vision an "apparently haphazard choice".

Paul Jamot. Degas. Paris, 1924, pp. 125, 142–43, reproduces the pastel version (MMA 29.100.39) but describes this picture in the entry for plate 36; dates it about 1874; calls it a variant of the grisaille and asserts that it is difficult to determine which version came first; says that no. 61 in the 3rd Impressionist exhibition [Exh. Paris 1877] could have been this picture, but considers it more likely to have been the grisaille.

Harry B. Wehle. "The Exhibition of the H. O. Havemeyer Collection." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 25 (March 1930), p. 55.

H. O. Havemeyer Collection: Catalogue of Paintings, Prints, Sculpture and Objects of Art. n.p., 1931, pp. 122–23, ill., dates it about 1874–75.

Walter Richard Sickert. "The Way of a Painter." Twentieth Century Art. Exh. cat., Leicester Galleries. London, 1932 [repr. in "A Free House! or the Artist as Craftsman: Being the Writings of Walter Richard Sickert," ed. Osbert Sitwell, 1947, p. 294], calls it "perhaps the most famous stage-rehearsal scene of a ballet by Degas" and remarks that it was painted over a pen-and-ink drawing rejected by the "Illustrated London News" for fear of offending its rectory circulation.

Jacqueline Bouchot-Saupique and Marie Delaroche-Vernet. Degas. Exh. cat., Musée de l'Orangerie. Paris, [1937], pp. 31–32, no. 22, pl. 13, date it probably about 1874–76 and believe this picture was definitely in the 3rd Impressionist exhibition [Exh. Paris 1877].

Hans Huth. "Impressionism Comes to America." Gazette des beaux-arts, 6th ser., 29 (April 1946), p. 239 n. 22, suggests erroneously that it was exhibited in 1886 in New York at the American Art Association and the National Academy of Design.

P[aul]. A[ndré]. Lemoisne. Degas et son œuvre. [reprint 1984]. Paris, [1946–49], vol. 1, pp. 91–92; vol. 2, pp. 218–19, no. 400, ill., dates it about 1876, calling it a replica of the grisaille (no. 340; dated 1874).

Louise Burroughs. "Notes." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 4 (January 1946), unpaginated, ill. on cover (color detail) and inside cover, refers to the grisaille as the earliest of the three versions.

Fiske Kimball and Lionello Venturi. Great Paintings in America. New York, 1948, pp. 182–83, no. 84, ill. (color), call it the second of the three versions, dating all three to 1874.

Lillian Browse. Degas Dancers. New York, [1949], pp. 55–56, 67, 338, 344–46, pl. 30, dates it about 1874–75, between the grisaille and pastel versions; attempts to identify the specific people, ballet, and location in the picture, suggesting that the ballet master is Eugène Coralli, who worked with the Paris Opéra and that the stage is that of the opera house on Rue Le Peletier, which burned down in October 1873.

Jean Cassou. Les Impressionnistes et leur époque. Paris, 1953, p. 28, no. 44, ill., dates it about 1876.

Douglas Cooper. The Courtauld Collection. London, 1954, pp. 61–62, notes that Lucien Pissarro saw this picture hanging in Sickert's home [see Ref. Pissarro 1891].

Pierre Cabanne. Edgar Degas. Paris, [1957], pp. 108, 112–13, 130, no. 66, pl. 66 [English ed., 1958, pp. 108–9, under no. 36, pp. 113, 132, no. 66, pl. 66], dates it 1875.

Louisine W. Havemeyer. Sixteen to Sixty: Memoirs of a Collector. New York, 1961, pp. 259–60, misidentifies the medium of this picture as gouache.

Ronald Pickvance. "Henry Hill: An Untypical Victorian Collector." Apollo 76 (December 1962), p. 791, fig. 3, states that Hill acquired this painting from Durand-Ruel by 1876.

Ronald Pickvance. "Degas's Dancers: 1872–6." Burlington Magazine 105 (June 1963), pp. 259–60, 263–66, fig. 21, dates it 1873 and considers it the earliest of the three versions; states that Degas originally created this picture as a pen and ink drawing, which was rejected for submission to the "Illustrated London News" and later added to in a manner "technically unique in Degas's oeuvre"; calls the grisaille version a radically modified variant of this one, dated before April 1874, and the pastel version a copy of the original ink design, dated no later than 1874; also relates the Courtauld painting "Two Dancers on a Stage" (Lemoisne no. 425) to this composition, calling all four related pictures "a closely self-contained group".

Jean Sutherland Boggs. Drawings by Degas. Exh. cat., City Art Museum of Saint Louis. St. Louis, 1966, p. 114, under no. 70.

Charles Sterling and Margaretta M. Salinger. French Paintings: A Catalogue of the Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Vol. 3, XIX–XX Centuries. New York, 1967, pp. 73–76, ill., accept Pickvance's [Ref. 1963] date of 1873–74 for all three versions and consider this picture the earliest of the three.

Lillian Browse. "Degas's Grand Passion." Apollo 85 (February 1967), p. 109, fig. 4, refers to it as one of the two later canvases among the three versions; comments on the liberties Degas has taken with the subject for the sake of the composition.

Theodore Reff. "An Exhibition of Drawings by Degas." Art Quarterly 30, no. 3–4 (1967), p. 261.

Fiorella Minervino in L'opera completa di Degas. Milan, 1970, p. 108, no. 466, ill., dates it 1873–74.

Theodore Reff. "Degas' Sculpture, 1880–1884." Art Quarterly 33, no. 3 (1970), pp. 294, 298 n. 73, asserts that although this picture has been cited as a source for the dancer motif on a carved wooden box by Gauguin (1884; Collection Halfdan Nobel Roede, Oslo), the grisaille version was more likely seen by Gauguin.

Theodore Reff. "The Technical Aspects of Degas's Art." Metropolitan Museum Journal 4 (1971), p. 151, fig. 17 (detail), calls Moore's [see Ref. 1890] description of Degas pictures executed in watercolor, gouache, oil, and pen and ink "obviously apropros" this painting, and cites it as an example of early critical notice of Degas' unconventional use of mixed media.

Alice Bellony-Rewald. The Lost World of the Impressionists. London, 1976, ill. p. 167, dates it 1878–79.

Theodore Reff. Degas, The Artist's Mind. [New York], 1976, pp. 284–85, fig. 200 (detail), dates it about 1873.

Theodore Reff. The Notebooks of Edgar Degas: A Catalogue of the Thirty-Eight Notebooks in the Bibliothèque Nationale and Other Collections. Oxford, 1976, vol. 1, p. 7 n. 2, pp. 9, 21, 115 (notebook 22, p. 203), pp. 119–20 (notebook 24, pp. 26–27), dates it 1873; catalogues studies for this picture and illustrates one of them [vol. 2, Nb. 24, p. 27].

Denys Sutton. Walter Sickert: A Biography. London, 1976, pp. 61, 71, 111–12, quotes from Sickert's letter to Jacques-Emile Blanche after he bought this picture in 1889: "I find more & more, in half a sentence that Degas has said, guidance for years of work," and from a [1902] letter in which he describes having sold this picture to an American for £3,000.

Charles S. Moffett. Degas: Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1979, p. 12, colorpl. 20, dates it 1873–74 in the text and about 1873 in the caption.

Ian Dunlop. Degas. New York, 1979, pp. 113, 117, 202, pl. 102, dates it 1873–74.

Keith Roberts. Degas. rev., enl. ed. [1st ed., 1976]. Oxford, 1982, unpaginated, under no. 17, fig. 21.

Ronald Pickvance. Edgar Degas: 1834–1917. Exh. cat., David Carritt. London, 1983, p. 4.

Roy McMullen. Degas: His Life, Times, and Work. Boston, 1984, pp. 218, 229, 361, 363.

George T. M. Shackelford. Degas: The Dancers. Exh. cat., National Gallery of Art. Washington, 1984, pp. 36–37, 44, 55, 127 n. 6, fig. 1.9, dates it about 1872.

Charles S. Moffett. Impressionist and Post-Impressionist Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1985, pp. 70–71, 74, 250, ill. (color), dates it about 1873, placing it first among the three versions.

Götz Adriani. Degas: Pastels, Oil Sketches, Drawings. Exh. cat., Kunsthalle Tübingen. New York, 1985, p. 362, under no. 93.

Anna Gruetzner. "Degas and George Moore: Some Observations about the Last Impressionist Exhibition." Degas 1834–1984. Ed. Richard Kendall. Manchester, 1985, p. 37, fig. 31, quotes from Moore's account ("The Speaker," December 5, 1891) of this picture's rejection by the Illustrated London News.

Richard Kendall in Degas, 1834–1984. Ed. Richard Kendall. Manchester, 1985, p. 24, fig. 31, calls the grisaille version a possible preliminary tonal study for the pen-and-ink underdrawing of this picture.

Frances Weitzenhoffer. The Havemeyers: Impressionism Comes to America. New York, 1986, p. 224, ill. (installation photograph of Exh. New York 1915).

Eunice Lipton. Looking into Degas: Uneasy Images of Women and Modern Life. Berkeley, 1986, p. 208 n. 29.

Richard R. Brettell in The New Painting: Impressionism 1874–1886. Ed. Charles S. Moffett. Exh. cat., National Gallery of Art, Washington. San Francisco, 1986, p. 204.

Hollis Clayson in The New Painting: Impressionism 1874–1886. Ed. Charles S. Moffett. Exh. cat., National Gallery of Art, Washington. San Francisco, 1986, p. 174, under no. 25.

Paul Tucker in The New Painting: Impressionism 1874–1886. Ed. Charles S. Moffett. Exh. cat., National Gallery of Art, Washington. San Francisco, 1986, p. 120, erroneously identifies it as no. 60 in the first Impressionist exhibition of 1874.

Dennis Farr and John House in Impressionist & Post-Impressionist Masterpieces: The Courtauld Collection. Exh. cat., Cleveland Museum of Art. New Haven, 1987, unpaginated, under nos. 7 and 8.

Alexandra R. Murphy in Rafael Fernandez and Alexandra R. Murphy. Degas in the Clark Collection. Exh. cat., Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, Mass., 1987, p. 11, fig. E, dates it about 1878.

Michael Pantazzi in Degas. Exh. cat., Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais, Paris. New York, 1988, pp. 225–32, 240, 242, 260, 391, 476, 494, no. 124, ill. (color), suggests a new sequence for the three versions: 1. the ink drawing underlying the pastel, 2. the ink drawing underlying this picture, 3. the grisaille, 1873–74, 4. this picture, reworked in color, perhaps 1874, and 5. the final pastel, perhaps 1874; calls it "technically the more curious" of the two MMA pictures and reports that in both compositions, certain areas in color were redrawn again in ink, a method of reworking that "appears to be unique in Degas's work"; notes that studies exist for almost every figure in the picture.

Richard Thomson. "The Degas Exhibition at the Grand Palais." Burlington Magazine 130 (April 1988), pp. 296, 298.

Anna Gruetzner Robins. "Degas and Sickert: Notes on Their Friendship." Burlington Magazine 130 (March 1988), pp. 226–27.

Mari Kálmán Meller. "Exercises in and around Degas's Classrooms: Part I." Burlington Magazine 130 (March 1988), pp. 212–15, fig. 29, dates it about 1873 and considers it the first of the three versions; discusses the evolution of the MMA compositions from the painting "Orchestra of the Opéra" (Musée d'Orsay); calls the style of the MMA versions "pell-mell, deliberately anarchic" that is then transformed to "a pedantic manner" in the grisaille; compares the group of figures at the left to similar groupings in the "Young Spartans" (1860; National Gallery, London) and "Four Dancers" (about 1899; National Gallery of Art, Washington).

Michael Kimmelman. "New Metropolitan Galleries Open with Degas." New York Times (September 26, 1988), p. C19.

Françoise Cachin. "Degas et Gauguin." Degas inédit: Actes du Colloque Degas. Paris, 1989, p. 115.

Denys Sutton. "Degas et l'Angleterre." Degas inédit: Actes du Colloque Degas. Paris, 1989, p. 280.

Richard Thomson. "The Degas Exhibition in Ottawa and New York." Burlington Magazine 131 (April 1989), pp. 293–94.

Henri Loyrette. Degas. Paris, 1991, p. 612.

Carol Armstrong. Odd Man Out: Readings of the Work and Reputation of Edgar Degas. Chicago, 1991, pp. 10, 38, 50, 60, 131, fig. 5, dates it 1876; discusses the "obsessive quality" of Degas's repetitions in the three versions of this picture.

Patrick Bade. Degas. London, 1991, pp. 84–85, 143, ill. (color).

Jean Sutherland Boggs and Anne Maheux. Degas Pastels. New York, 1992, p. 54, under no. 8, p. 171 n. 8–1, pp. 180–81, identify it as probably no. 60 in the 1st Impressionist exhibition and as no. 61 in the 3rd Impressionist exhibition.

Louisine W. Havemeyer. Sixteen to Sixty: Memoirs of a Collector. Ed. Susan Alyson Stein. 3rd ed. [1st ed. 1930, repr. 1961]. New York, 1993, pp. 257, 259–60, 337 n. 376, pp. 338–39 n. 387.

Susan Alyson Stein in Splendid Legacy: The Havemeyer Collection. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1993, pp. 232, 285, colorpl. 227, dates it "1874?".

Rebecca A. Rabinow in Splendid Legacy: The Havemeyer Collection. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1993, p. 95, fig. 12 (installation photograph of Exh. New York 1915), identifies it as either no. 38 or not in the catalogue of the 1915 New York exhibition.

Gretchen Wold in Splendid Legacy: The Havemeyer Collection. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1993, pp. 328–29, no. A212, ill.

Albert Kostenevich. Hidden Treasures Revealed: Impressionist Masterpieces and Other Important French Paintings Preserved by the State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg. Exh. cat.New York, 1995, p. 64, suggests that "The Dancer" (about 1874; State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg) is related to this picture.

Richard Kendall. Degas, Beyond Impressionism. Exh. cat., National Gallery. London, 1996, pp. 58–59, 308 n. 16.

Ruth Berson, ed. "Documentation: Volume I, Reviews and Volume II, Exhibited Works." The New Painting: Impressionism 1874–1886. San Francisco, 1996, vol. 2, p. 74, no. III-61, ill. p. 92, identifies it as possibly no. 61 in the 3rd Impressionist exhibition [Exh. Paris 1877].

Gary Tinterow in La collection Havemeyer: Quand l'Amérique découvrait l'impressionnisme. Exh. cat., Musée d'Orsay. Paris, 1997, pp. 66, 105, no. 34, ill. p. 69 (color), dates it 1873–74.

Susan Alyson Stein in La collection Havemeyer: Quand l'Amérique découvrait l'impressionnisme. Exh. cat., Musée d'Orsay. Paris, 1997, p. 19.

Richard Kendall. Degas and the Little Dancer. Exh. cat., Joslyn Art Museum, Omaha. New Haven, 1998, pp. 6, 177 nn. 14, 16.

Rebecca A. Rabinow in Degas and America: The Early Collectors. Exh. cat., High Museum of Art. Atlanta, 2000, p. 39, fig. 8 (color).

Jill DeVonyar and Richard Kendall. Degas and the Dance. Exh. cat., Detroit Institute of Arts. New York, 2002, pp. 30, 58, 60–61, 71, 101, 143, 159–60, 201–2, colorpl. 62, date it probably 1874, suggesting that Degas began the three versions before the October 1873 fire at the Opéra, perhaps in the summer since the resting dancers do not wear shawls, or that he rapidly painted them from memory within months; note that the artist's viewpoint is from the first-level balcony to the left of the stage, a primary location "traditionally reserved... for the emperor or for leading dignitaries"; propose that the dance being rehearsed is the divertissement, "Ballet des Roses," from the opera "Don Juan".

Jill DeVonyar and Richard Kendall in Master Drawings, 1700–1900. Exh. cat., W. M. Brady & Co., Inc. New York, 2002, unpaginated, under no. 32.

Gioia Mori in Degas: Classico e moderno. Ed. Maria Teresa Benedetti. Exh. cat., Complesso del Vittoriano, Rome. Milan, 2004, p. 106 n. 31.

Maria Teresa Benedetti in Degas: Classico e moderno. Ed. Maria Teresa Benedetti. Exh. cat., Complesso del Vittoriano, Rome. Milan, 2004, p. 229.

Madeleine Korn. "Exhibitions of Modern French Art and Their Influence on Collectors in Britain 1870–1918: The Davies Sisters in Context." Journal of the History of Collections 16, no. 2 (2004), pp. 208–9, 213, as "Répétition d'un ballet sur la scène"; dates it about 1876.

Gary Tinterow and Asher Ethan Miller in The Wrightsman Pictures. Ed. Everett Fahy. New York, 2005, pp. 402, 404 n. 3, note that Degas hoped James Tissot could help him sell this picture as a commercial illustration.

Anna Gruetzner Robins in Anna Gruetzner Robins and Richard Thomson. Degas, Sickert and Toulouse-Lautrec: London and Paris, 1870–1910. Exh. cat., Tate Britain. London, 2005, pp. 62, 65–66, 74, 79, 84, 184, 203–4.

Richard Thomson in Anna Gruetzner Robins and Richard Thomson. Degas, Sickert and Toulouse-Lautrec: London and Paris, 1870–1910. Exh. cat., Tate Britain. London, 2005, pp. 26, 29, fig. 9 (color), dates it about 1873–74; notes that Hill purchased this picture from Deschamps for 66 guineas and speculates that Hill "responded to these scenes of exercise and rehearsal as intriguing images of an unusual corner of contemporary life, or that they struck a chord in his sympathy for the strenuous lives of the urban worker".

Jill DeVonyar in Annette Dixon. The Dancer: Degas, Forain, Toulouse-Lautrec. Exh. cat., Portland Art Museum. Portland, Oreg., 2008, p. 223, fig. 14 (color).

There are two other versions of this composition, a grisaille in the Musée d'Orsay, Paris (L340) and a pastel in the MMA (29.100.39). The chronology of the three versions has been a matter of some dispute [see Ref. Pantazzi 1988]. George Moore ("The Speaker," December 5, 1891) stated that this picture was originally submitted as a pen and ink drawing to the "Illustrated London News" in 1873 and that after its rejection, Degas painted over it in color [see Refs. Pickvance 1963 and Sickert 1932]. However, Douglas Druick has suggested, in conversation, that it was the grisaille that Degas submitted.

The painting "Two Dancers on a Stage" in the Courtauld Collection, London (L425), is directly related to the two dancers at middle right in the rehearsal compositions. Numerous preparatory studies exist for almost every individual figure.