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The Rehearsal of the Ballet Onstage

ca. 1874
On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 816
There are three similar versions of this scene, and their precise relationship has bedeviled scholars for decades. The largest, painted in grisaille (Musée d’Orsay, Paris), appeared in the first Impressionist exhibition in 1874. The two others, tentatively dated the same year, are in the Metropolitan’s collection. This painting probably preceded the version in pastel (29.100.39), which is more freely handled. The importance that Degas attached to the composition is evident in the preparatory drawings that he made for almost every figure, from the dancer scratching her back in the foreground to the woman yawning next to the stage flat.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: The Rehearsal of the Ballet Onstage
  • Artist: Edgar Degas (French, Paris 1834–1917 Paris)
  • Date: ca. 1874
  • Medium: Oil colors freely mixed with turpentine, with traces of watercolor and pastel over pen-and-ink drawing on cream-colored wove paper, laid down on bristol board and mounted on canvas
  • Dimensions: 21 3/8 x 28 3/4 in. (54.3 x 73 cm)
  • Classification: Drawings
  • Credit Line: H. O. Havemeyer Collection, Gift of Horace Havemeyer, 1929
  • Object Number: 29.160.26
  • Curatorial Department: European Paintings

More Artwork

More Artwork
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Huit Sonnets. . .Illustré de dix-nuef dessins inédits de Edgar Degas
Edgar Degas
Wittenborn and Co., La Jeune Parque
1946
Seated Woman in Bonnet and Shawl, Edgar Degas French, Aquatint, drypoint, and etching; printed from canceled plate
Seated Woman in Bonnet and Shawl
Edgar Degas
ca. 1879
At the Café des Ambassadeurs, Edgar Degas French, Etching, softground, drypoint, and aquatint; fifth (final) state; canceled plate
At the Café des Ambassadeurs
Edgar Degas
1879–80
Greek Landscape, Edgar Degas French, Etching (only state; impression from cancelled plate)
Greek Landscape
Edgar Degas
1856
On Stage III, Edgar Degas French, Softground etching,drypoint, and roulette on wove paper; fourth state of five
On Stage III
Edgar Degas
1876–77

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