Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History

The Metropolitan Museum of Art


    • The Ballet from Robert le Diable, 1871
    Edgar Degas (French, 1834–1917)
    Oil on canvas

    26 x 21 3/8 in. (66 x 54.3 cm)
    Signed and dated (lower right): Degas / 1872
    H. O. Havemeyer Collection, Bequest of Mrs. H. O. Havemeyer, 1929 (29.100.552)

    This scene is from the third act of Giacomo Meyerbeer's opera Robert le Diable. The ghosts of dead nuns have been resurrected and greet one another amid the ruins of a moonlit monastery. Although dated 1872, this canvas was painted in 1871. In 1876, Degas executed a larger version (Victoria and Albert Museum, London) expressly for Jean-Baptiste Faure, who starred in the opera.

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    This work has been published in the Museum's Bulletin or Journal. These articles may or may not represent the most current scholarship.
  • Reff, Theodore. "Degas: A Master Among Masters." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, v. 34, no. 4 (Spring, 1977).
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  • The Ballet from Robert le Diable, 1871
    Edgar Degas (French, 1834–1917)
    Oil on canvas

    26 x 21 3/8 in. (66 x 54.3 cm)
    Signed and dated (lower right): Degas / 1872
    H. O. Havemeyer Collection, Bequest of Mrs. H. O. Havemeyer, 1929 (29.100.552)