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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
Woman Having Her Hair Combed, Edgar Degas French, Pastel on light green wove paper, now discolored to warm gray, affixed to original pulpboard mount
Woman Having Her Hair Combed
Edgar Degas
ca. 1886–88
Ceramic Horn, Glazed pottery, French
Ceramic Horn
French
late 18th or early 19th century
Woman on a Sofa, Edgar Degas French, Oil colors freely mixed with turpentine, with touches of pastel, over graphite underdrawing, on pink paper
Woman on a Sofa
Edgar Degas
1875
Dancer in the Role of Harlequin, Edgar Degas French, Bronze, French
Dancer in the Role of Harlequin
Edgar Degas
Founder Cast by A.-A. Hébrard et Cie
modeled probably ca. 1884–85, cast 1920
The Dance Class, Edgar Degas French, Oil on canvas
The Dance Class
Edgar Degas
1874

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