The Dancing Class

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The Dancing Class
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ArtistEdgar Degas
Yearc. 1870
Typeoil painting on wood
Dimensions19.7 cm × 27 cm (7.8 in × 11 in)
LocationMetropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Script error: No such module "Check for conflicting parameters".The Dancing Class is an oil painting on wood executed around 1870 by the French artist Edgar Degas. The painting depicts a dancing class at the Paris Opéra.[1] The dancer in the center is Joséphine Gaujelin (or Gozelin).[2] It is one of Degas's earliest classroom scenes,[3]Template:R/superscript and it is considered foundational to the development of his ballet series.[4]Template:R/superscript The work is known by various titles, including The Dancing Class,[3]Template:R/superscript Dance Class,[5]Template:R/superscript and Rehearsal Room,[4]Template:R/superscript and it is variously dated to 1871,[5]Template:R/superscript1872,[6]Template:R/superscript or 1871–1872.[3]Template:R/superscript

Background and creation

The Dancing Class is one of Degas's initial attempts at depicting the rehearsal space at a time when he remained relatively unfamiliar with the environment.[3]Template:R/superscript To make the picture, Degas relied on preparatory studies rather than creating the work in the moment. The unfamiliar presence of Degas in the practice room may have led to the dancers to appear stiff and self-conscious. This early stiffness in The Dancing Class is often contrasted with the more relaxed and fluid forms of the dancers in his future, more intimate works.[3]Template:R/superscript

Composition and style

Degas, The Ballet Class, c. 1880. Mari Kálmán Meller observes that this work demonstrates Degas's use of similar motifs throughout his ballet series. It includes a large mirror first seen in The Dancing Class.[4]Template:R/superscript

The Dancing Class has been seen as a template for Degas's later classroom scenes. It is the first work in the series to introduce several motifs that would become central to his ballet paintings, including the barre, the reflective mirrors, and the bare floorboards.[4]Template:R/superscript Mari Kálmán Meller notes that the picture shares with the later ballet scenes a "highly-articulated architectural setting."[4]Template:R/superscript Degas frequently used architectural structures and careful placement of figures to control the viewers gaze and impression a scene.[5]Template:R/superscript Scholars have attributed the spatial arrangement and composition of this scene to the influence of the Spanish master Velázquez.[4]Template:R/superscript

Critical reception

Critics offered a mix of responses to The Dancing Class when it was first exhibited in 1874. The critic Marc de Montifaud described the work as "a fine, profound study from which emerges that which one would never encounter in the work of certain genre painters who would blush to put undraped figures in a canvas of only a few inches' in size: the study of woman in all her opulent nudity, of her elegant or thin anatomical lines."[7]Template:R/superscript Emphasizing the erotic character of the work, Montifaud related the figures to the act of "seduction."[7]Template:R/superscript Other critics saw the work as more incoherent than erotic, emphasizing the angular and supposedly disjointed appearance of the figures.[7]Template:R/superscript

Interpretation and themes

Scholars have often interpreted the work in relation to the social and historical context of late nineteenth-century Paris, treating it as consistent with Degas's commitment to documenting modern life.[5]Template:R/superscript Eunice Lipton suggests that Degas's images of dancers resonate with contemporary issues of class, sex, and work.[6]Template:R/superscript According to Lipton, Degas's depiction of intimate moments like stretching, practicing, and resting made public what was intensely private. Degas, Lipton suggests, was able to bring his middle class audience into spaces they could not view themselves, "titillating his bourgeois audience."[6]Template:R/superscript Carol Armstrong notes that Degas counterbalances the depiction of dancers as a desirable object of eroticism with their portrayal as a realistic subject of social documentation.[7]Template:R/superscript

Scholars have also observed that the picture is notable for including a male musician. In Degas's later works he neglected to include males as a rejection of "sexual confrontation" and as a step towards painting "gender-specific subjects."[5]Template:R/superscript

See also

References

  1. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."The Dancing Class". Metropolitan Museum. Retrieved 2026-05-03.
  2. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Galitz, Kathryn Calley; Miller, Asher Ethan; Rabinow, Rebecca A.; Rewald, Sabine; Stein, Susan Alyson; Tinterow, Gary (2007). [[[:Template:GBurl]] Masterpieces of European Painting, 1800–1920, in the Metropolitan Museum of Art]. Metropolitan Museum of Art. p. 112. ISBN 978-1-58839-240-4. {{cite book}}: Check |url= value (help)
  3. ^ a b c d e Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.DeVonyar, Jill; Kendall, Richard (2002). Degas and the Dance. New York: Harry N. Abrams, in association with the American Federation of Arts. pp. 60, 135–137, fig 143.
  4. ^ a b c d e f Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Meller, Mari Kálmán. "Exercises in and Around Degas's Classrooms: Part I."". The Burlington Magazine. 130 (1020): 198–215 – via JSTOR.
  5. ^ a b c d e Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Kendall, Richard; Pollock, Griselda (1992). "Signs and Non-Signs: Degas' Changing Strategies of Representation.". Dealing with Degas: Representations of Women and the Politics of Vision. New York, NY: Universe. pp. 186–87, 189–91, 193, fig. 42.
  6. ^ a b c Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Lipton, Eunice (1987). Looking into Degas : Uneasy Images of Women and Modern Life. Berkeley: University of California Press. pp. 86, 97, 99–100, 207, n.12, fig. 53.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: publisher location (link)
  7. ^ a b c d Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Armstrong, Carol (1991). Odd Man out : Readings of the Work and Reputation of Edgar Degas. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. pp. 9, 50, 52–53, fig. 1.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: publisher location (link)
  • Impressionism: a centenary exhibition, an exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art (fully available online as PDF), which contains material on The Dancing Class (p. 94-98)

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