About 1900 Degas revised a painting (Foundation E. G. Bührle Collection, Zürich) that he had made some twenty years earlier. This pastel, which reprises the composition, may well have been created during the modifications. Degas likely sold the pastel directly to the dealer Ambroise Vollard, who is recorded as the owner in 1914.
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Title:The Dancers
Artist:Edgar Degas (French, Paris 1834–1917 Paris)
Medium:Pastel and charcoal on paper
Dimensions:28 x 23 1/4 in. (71.1 x 59.1 cm)
Classification:Drawings
Credit Line:Gift of George N. and Helen M. Richard, 1964
Accession Number:64.165.1
Inscription: Signed and inscribed (lower right): Degas [g or 9?]
[Ambroise Vollard, Paris, in 1914]; [Matignon Art Gallery (André Weil), Paris, about 1942–43; sold March 8 to Durand-Ruel]; [Durand-Ruel, New York, 1943–49; stock no. NY 5494; sold October 17 for $11,500 to Richard]; Mr. and Mrs. George N. Richard, New York (1949–64)
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Degas in the Metropolitan," February 26–September 4, 1977, no. 30 (of works on paper).
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Cézanne to Picasso: Ambroise Vollard, Patron of the Avant-Garde," September 14, 2006–January 7, 2007, no. 57.
LOAN OF THIS WORK IS RESTRICTED.
[Ambroise Vollard]. Degas: Quatre-vingt-dix-huit reproductions signées par Degas. Paris, 1914, pl. XVII.
P[aul]. A[ndré]. Lemoisne. Degas et son œuvre. [reprint 1984]. Paris, [1946–49], vol. 2, pp. 332–33, no. 589, ill., dates it about 1880; calls it a study for "La classe de ballet" (L587; then in the collection of Robert Treat Paine, Boston).
Fiorella Minervino inL'opera completa di Degas. Milan, 1970, p. 120 under no. 760, calls it a sketch for Lemoisne no. 587, which she locates in the Bührle Collection, Zurich.
Katharine Baetjer. European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art by Artists Born Before 1865: A Summary Catalogue. New York, 1995, p. 458, ill.
Gary Tinterow inCézanne to Picasso: Ambroise Vollard, Patron of the Avant-Garde. Ed. Rebecca A. Rabinow. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2006, p. 161 n. 45, fig. 173 (color) [French ed., "De Cézanne à Picasso: Chefs-d'oeuvre de la galerie Vollard," Paris, 2007, p. 173 n. 45], mentions it among Degas works owned by Vollard that were altered after their publication in the 1914 "Album Vollard".
Asher Ethan Miller inCézanne to Picasso: Ambroise Vollard, Patron of the Avant-Garde. Ed. Rebecca A. Rabinow. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2006, p. 347, no. 57, ill., dates it about 1900, and suggests Vollard acquired it from the artist before 1912; notes the changes in this pastel since its reproduction in the 1914 "Album Vollard," adding that the work was probably altered after Vollard's death.
Christian Berger. Wiederholung und Experiment bei Edgar Degas. Berlin, 2014, pp. 38–40, 155 n. 130, fig. 13, compares it to Degas's "Dancers Practicing in the Foyer" (ca. 1890–1910, L590), "The Dance Lesson" (1881, Philadelphia Museum of Art), "The Ballet Class" (ca. 1880–1900, Bührle Collection, Zürich), and "Dancers" (ca. 1890–1900, National Gallery, London); discusses the order in which Degas produced them.
Marjorie Shelley. "A Disputed Pastel Reclaimed for Degas: 'Two Dancers, Half-Length'." Metropolitan Museum Journal 51 (2016), p. 143 n. 10, p. 144 n. 36, notes the tonal value reversals in Vollard's photographs of the picture, particularly in the blue tutus of the four dancers in the background.
Kimberly A. Jones inDegas à l'Opéra. Ed. Henri Loyrette. Exh. cat., Musée d'Orsay. Paris, 2019, p. 182, fig. 183 (color) [English ed., London, 2020], discusses it as an example of the artist's technique of tracing an existing drawing in charcoal on tracing paper, then adjusting and refining the figures and building up the surface with pastel, while incorporating the intial charcoal drawing in the final image.
This pastel relates to paintings in the Bührle Collection, Zurich (Lemoisne no. 587), and the National Gallery, London (Lemoisne no. 588), and also to a pastel included in the second Degas atelier sale, 1918, no. 153 (Lemoisne no. 590).
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