In this pastel, Degas directed his focus to the dancer’s foreshadowed arm, drawn on a diagonal from the lowered hand to the head. He reworked the placement of both the hand, as is clearly indicated, and the head, apparently masking these changes with the dark green shading at left. Degas often used this pose, which appears in several more finished pictures, for scenes with a ballerina clutching a bouquet of flowers or taking a final bow. The model here is distinctive; as she is older and not a generic type, scholars have suggested that perhaps she and the artist were friends.
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Title:Dancer
Artist:Edgar Degas (French, Paris 1834–1917 Paris)
Date:1880–85
Medium:Pastel on paper, laid down on board
Dimensions:19 1/4 x 12 3/4 in. (48.9 x 32.4 cm)
Classification:Drawings
Credit Line:Gift of The Philip and Janice Levin Foundation, 2007
Object Number:2007.332.1
Mme Grandjean (until 1919; sold February 7, 1919 to Durand-Ruel); [Durand-Ruel, Paris, 1919–20, stock no. 11416; sold November 11 or December 20, 1920 to Durand-Ruel, New York]; [Durand-Ruel, New York, 1920–26, stock no. 4507; sold October 15, 1926 to Turner]; Percy Moore Turner, London (1926–29; probably his sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, May 29, 1929, no. 26, sold to Kojanovicz); Kojanovicz, Zurich (1929–54); Dr. Fritz Nathan, Zurich (in 1954); [Galerie Rosengart, Lucerne, in 1964]; [Sam Salz, New York]; Mr. and Mrs. Sydney M. Shoenberg, St. Louis (in 1966); [E. V. Thaw and Co., New York, in the late 1970s]; private collection, Chicago; [Beadleston Gallery, New York, 1991; sold to Nowinski]; Dr. and Mrs. Robert Nowinski, New York (from 1991); [Richard L. Feigen and Co., New York, until 1996, stock no. 19874-D; sold November 19, 1996 to Levin]; Janice H. Levin, New York (1996–d. 2001); Philip and Janice Levin Foundation, New York (2001–7)
City Art Museum of Saint Louis. "Drawings by Degas," January 20–February 26, 1967, no. 117 (as "Ballet Dancer Curtsying," lent by Mr. and Mrs. Sydney M. Shoenberg, St. Louis).
Roslyn Harbor, N.Y. Nassau County Museum of Art. "20th Century Master Watercolors, Drawings and Sculpture from the Nowinski Collection," May 10–August 9, 1992, unnumbered cat. (as "Danseuse s'aquenouillant [Kneeling Dancer]").
Art Museum, Princeton University. "20th Century Master Watercolors, Drawings and Sculpture," February 28–April 11, 1993, unnumbered cat.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "A Very Private Collection: Janice H. Levin's Impressionist Pictures," November 19, 2002–February 9, 2003, no. 9 (as "Kneeling Dancer").
LOAN OF THIS WORK IS RESTRICTED.
P[aul]. A[ndré]. Lemoisne. Degas et son œuvre. [reprint 1984]. Paris, [1946–49], vol. 2, pp. 350–51, no. 616, ill., calls it "Danseuse s'agenouillant" and dates it about 1880–85.
Stephen Longstreet. The Drawings of Degas. Los Angeles, 1964, unpaginated, ill., as in the collection of the Galerie Rosengart, Lucerne.
Jean Sutherland Boggs. Drawings by Degas. Exh. cat., City Art Museum of Saint Louis. St. Louis, 1966, pp. 178, 180–82, no. 117, ill., calls it "Ballet Dancer Curtsying" and dates it about 1885; relates it to three pastels of a trio of dancers (all about 1885; L586, L602, L612) and discusses the similarity of pose in another drawing of a dancer (Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford; L616bis).
Fiorella Minervino inL'opera completa di Degas. Milan, 1970, p. 122, no. 788, ill.
Ronnie Meyerson in20th Century Master Watercolors, Drawings and Sculpture from the Nowinski Collection. Exh. cat., Nassau County Museum of Art. Roslyn Harbor, N.Y., 1992, p. 7.
Franklin Hill Perrell in20th Century Master Watercolors, Drawings and Sculpture from the Nowinski Collection. Exh. cat., Nassau County Museum of Art. Roslyn Harbor, N.Y., 1992, pp. 22–23, ill. (color).
Richard Shone. The Janice H. Levin Collection of French Art. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2002, pp. 10, 39–41, no. 9, ill. (color), calls it "Kneeling Dancer" and dates it about 1880–85; comments that it does not seem related to any later painting.
Rebecca A. Rabinow in "Recent Acquisitions, A Selection: 2007–2008." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 66 (Fall 2008), p. 43, ill. (color), notes the focus on the dancer's foreshortened forearm and that the pose reappears in several of Degas's more finished pictures; states that Degas likely made changes to the placement of the hand and the head; notes that since the dancer is older and not a generic type, she and Degas may have been friends.
"Calendar." Burlington Magazine 151 (May 2009), p. 354, fig. 93 (color), as "Kneeling Dancer".
R[ichard]. S[hone]. "Supplement: Acquisitions (2000–10) of nineteenth- and early twentieth-century French art at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York." Burlington Magazine 152 (December 2010), p. 842, fig. IX (color).
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