The Dance Class | Edgar Degas | All | European Paintings | Collection Database | Works of Art

Signatures, Inscriptions, and Markings

Signed (lower left): Degas

Gallery LabelWhen this work and its variant in the Musée d'Orsay, Paris, were painted in the mid-1870s, they constituted Degas's most ambitious figural compositions except for history paintings. Some twenty-four women, ballerinas and their mothers, wait while a dancer executes an "attitude" for her examination. Jules Perrot, one of the best-known dancers and ballet masters in Europe, conducts the class. The imaginary scene is set in a rehearsal room in the old Paris Opéra—a poster for Rossini's "Guillaume Tell" is on the wall beside the mirror—even though the building had just burned to the ground.

The painting was commissioned in 1872 as part of an arrangement between Degas and the singer and collector Jean-Baptiste Faure. It was one of only a few commissions that the artist ever accepted, and the painting was delivered in November 1874 after two years of intermittent work.

ProvenanceJean-Baptiste Faure, Paris (1874–98; received from the artist in November 1874, for Fr 5,000; sold on February 19, 1898 for Fr 10,000 to Durand-Ruel); [Durand-Ruel, Paris, 1898; stock no. 4562, as "Le foyer de la danse"; transferred to Durand-Ruel, New York, March 16, 1898; stock no. 1977; sold April 4, 1898 for $25,000 to Payne]; Colonel Oliver H. Payne, New York (1898–d. 1917); his nephew, Harry Payne Bingham, New York (1917–d. 1955); his widow, Mrs. Harry Payne Bingham, New York (1955–d. 1986)

Exhibition History

Paris. 11, rue Le Peletier. "2e exposition de peinture [2nd Impressionist exhibition]," April 1876, no. 37.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Loan Exhibition of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist Paintings," May 3–September 15, 1921, no. 27.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "New York Collects," July 3–September 2, 1968, no. 50.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Impressionism: A Centenary Exhibition," December 12, 1974–February 10, 1975, no. 17.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Degas," September 27, 1988–January 8, 1989, no. 130.

Ottawa. National Gallery of Canada. "Degas," June 16–August 28, 1988, no. 130.

Paris. Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais. "Degas," February 9–May 16, 1988, no. 130.

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

Detroit Institute of Arts. "Degas and the Dance," October 20, 2002–January 12, 2003, unnumbered cat.

Philadelphia Museum of Art. "Degas and the Dance," February 12–May 11, 2003, unnumbered cat.

References

Ph[ilippe]. Burty. "Fine Art: The Exhibition of the 'Intransigeants'." Academy (April 15, 1876), pp. 363–64 [reprinted in Ref. Berson 1996, vol. 1, p. 65].

Pierre Dax. "Chronique." L'Artiste (May 1, 1876), pp. 347–49 [reprinted in Ref. Berson 1996, vol. 1, p. 70].

Georges Grappe. Edgar Degas. Berlin, [1908], ill. p. 21.

P.-A Lemoisne. Degas. Paris, 1912, p. 60.

Julius Meier-Graefe. Degas. Munich, 1920, p. 41, pl. 16 [English ed., 1923, p. 56, pl. XVI].

Paul Jamot. Degas. Paris, 1924, p. 144, pl. 40.

Ambroise Vollard. Degas (1834–1917). Paris, 1924, ill. opp. p. 96.

J. B. Manson. The Life and Work of Edgar Degas. London, 1927, p. 21.

Lettres de Degas. Paris, 1931, p. 16 n. 1 [English ed., New York, (1948), p. 261].

Marguerite Rebatet. Degas. Paris, 1944, pl. 77.

P[aul]. A[ndré]. Lemoisne. Degas et son œuvre. [reprint 1984]. Paris, [1946–49], vol. 1, pp. 92, 99, 102; vol. 2, pp. 180, 194, 214–15, no. 397, ill.

John Rewald. "The Realism of Degas." Magazine of Art 39 (January 1946), p. 13, ill.

Lillian Browse. Degas Dancers. New York, [1949], pp. 53–54, 341, 343, pl. 23.

Pierre Cabanne. Edgar Degas. Paris, [1957], pp. 98, 108–9, under no. 36 [English ed., 1958].

Jakob Rosenberg. Great Draughtsmen from Pisanello to Picasso. Cambridge, Mass., 1959, p. 113.

Louisine W. Havemeyer. Sixteen to Sixty: Memoirs of a Collector. New York, 1961, pp. 33, 263–64, 289.

Ronald Pickvance. "Degas's Dancers: 1872–6." Burlington Magazine 105 (June 1963), p. 259 nn. 35, 38, p. 264.

Lillian Browse. "Degas's Grand Passion." Apollo 85 (February 1967), p. 109, fig. 5.

Fiorella Minervino in L'opera completa di Degas. Milan, 1970, p. 109, no. 488, ill.

Anthea Callen. "Jean-Baptiste Faure, 1830–1914: A Study of a Patron and Collector of the Impressionists and their Contemporaries." Master's thesis, University of Leicester, 1971, p. 161, no. 194, fig. 1.

Charles S. Moffett in Impressionism: A Centenary Exhibition. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1974, pp. 104–7, no. 17, ill. (color) [French ed., "Centenaire de l'impressionnisme," Éditions des musées nationaux, Paris, 1974].

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. 125 (notebook 26, p. 74).

Roy McMullen. Degas: His Life, Times, and Work. Boston, 1984, p. 249.

George T. M. Shackelford. Degas: The Dancers. Exh. cat., National Gallery of Art. Washington, 1984, pp. 52–53, 63 n. 19, fig. 2.8.

Hollis Clayson in The New Painting: Impressionism 1874–1886. Exh. cat., National Gallery of Art, Washington. San Francisco, 1986, p. 161.

Frances Weitzenhoffer. The Havemeyers: Impressionism Comes to America. New York, 1986, pp. 126–27, 130–31, 219, 222, colorpl. 79.

John Russell. "Turkish and Other Delights." New York Times Magazine (August 30, 1987), pp. 71, 110, ill. (color).

Gary Tinterow in Recent Acquisitions: A Selection, 1986–1987. New York, 1987, pp. 39–40, ill. (overall and color detail) and on cover (color).

Jean Sutherland Boggs in Degas. Exh. cat., Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais, Paris. New York, 1988, pp. 26, 32 n. 30, fig. 4 (color detail).

Robert Gordon and Andrew Forge. Degas. New York, 1988, p. 273, ill. p. 62 (color).

Robert L. Herbert. Impressionism: Art, Leisure, and Parisian Society. New Haven, 1988, pp. 124, 127, colorpl. 129.

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

Michael Pantazzi in Degas. Exh. cat., Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais, Paris. New York, 1988, pp. 221–23 n. 12, pp. 234, 236–37, 240, 242–44, 274, 325, no. 130, ill. (color).

Barbara Scott. "The Triumph of Degas." Apollo 127 (April 1988), p. 283.

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

Gary Tinterow and Anne Norton. "Degas aux expositions impressionnistes." Degas inédit: Actes du Colloque Degas. Paris, 1989, p. 297.

Anne Distel. Impressionism: The First Collectors. New York, 1990, p. 89, colorpl. 72.

Carol Armstrong. Odd Man Out: Readings of the Work and Reputation of Edgar Degas. Chicago, 1991, pp. 54, 131–32, fig. 23.

Everett Fahy. "Selected Acquisitions of European Paintings at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1987–1991." Burlington Magazine 133 (November 1991), pp. 801, 808, colorpl. XIII.

Henri Loyrette. Degas. Paris, 1991, pp. 362, 742 n. 192.

Linda Nochlin. "A House is not a Home: Degas and the Subversion of the Family." Dealing with Degas: Representations of Women and the Politics of Vision. London, 1992, p. 57.

Louisine W. Havemeyer. Sixteen to Sixty: Memoirs of a Collector. 3rd ed. [1st ed. 1930, repr. 1961]. New York, 1993, pp. 33, 263–64, 289, 313 n. 68, p. 339 n. 395, p. 344 n. 456.

Henri Loyrette. Degas: The Man and His Art. New York, 1993, pp. 81–83, 86, ill. (color).

Rebecca A. Rabinow. "The Suffrage Exhibition of 1915." Splendid Legacy: The Havemeyer Collection. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1993, pp. 89, 91.

Susan Alyson Stein in Splendid Legacy: The Havemeyer Collection. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1993, p. 223, fig. 59.

Marilyn R. Brown. Degas and the Business of Art: A Cotton Office in New Orleans. University Park, Pa., 1994, pp. 105, 126.

Richard Thomson. Edgar Degas: Waiting. Malibu, 1995, pp. 40, 94 n. 84.

"Documentation: Volume I, Reviews and Volume II, Exhibited Works." The New Painting: Impressionism 1874–1886. San Francisco, 1996, vol. 1, p. 70; vol. 2, p. 34, no. II-37, ill. p. 48.

Lillian Schacherl. Edgar Degas: Dancers and Nudes. Munich, 1997, p. 18.

Jill DeVonyar and Richard Kendall Preface by Lillian Browse in Degas and the Dance. Exh. cat., Detroit Institute of Arts. New York, 2002, pp. 54, 79, 107, 119, 129, 141, 143, 202–3, 211, 289, colorpl. 127.

Jill DeVonyar and Richard Kendall in Master Drawings, 1700–1900. Exh. cat., W. M. Brady & Co., Inc. New York, 2002, unpaginated, under no. 32, fig. 10 (color detail).

John Richardson. "Degas and the Dancers." Vanity Fair (October 2002), pp. 334–35, ill. (color).

Richard Shone. The Janice H. Levin Collection of French Art. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2002, p. 39.

Stephen May. "Shadows Behind the Curtain." Art & Antiques 26 (June 2003), p. 74, ill.

Maria Teresa Benedetti in Degas: Classico e moderno. Exh. cat., Complesso del Vittoriano, Rome. Milan, 2004, p. 264.

Petra ten-Doesschate Chu. Nineteenth-Century European Art. 2nd ed. Upper Saddle River, N.J., 2006, pp. 399–401, fig. 16-32 (color).

Gary Tinterow in Masterpieces of European Painting, 1800–1920, in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2007, pp. 113, 242, no. 102, ill. (color and bw) and frontispiece (color detail).

Jane Kinsman. Degas: The Uncontested Master. Exh. cat., National Gallery of Australia. Canberra, 2008, p. 128 n. 2, p. 130.

Alastair Macaulay. "Degas's Ballet Students Teach the Lessons of Their Art." New York Times (September 3, 2008), pp. E1, E5, ill. (color).

Michael Pantazzi in Jane Kinsman. Degas: The Uncontested Master. Exh. cat., National Gallery of Australia. Canberra, 2008, p. 248.

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