Edgar Degas

The artist's studio (sold: Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, Atelier Edgar Degas, première vente, May 7 & 8, 1918, lot 269)

Jacques Seligmann, Paris (sold: The American Art Association, New York, 27th January 1921, lot 15)

Ambroise Vollard, Paris

Paul Cassirer, Amsterdam

Alexander Lewin, Monaco (on deposit at the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam from 1939)

Alix Kurz, Hastings, UK (by descent from the above)

Walter Feilchenfeldt, Zurich (acquired from the above in 1984)

Alex Reid & Lefevre Gallery, London & Acquavella Galleries, New York (jointly acquired in 1985)

Private Collection, United States (sold: Christie's, New York, May 12, 1993, lot 19)

Private Collection, United States (acquired at the above sale)

Private Collection, United States (acquired from the above)

Rotterdam, Museum Boymans-van Beuningen, Teekeningen van Ingres tot Seurat, 1933-34, no. 22

Amsterdam, Stedelijk Museum, Honderd Jaar Fransche Kunst, 1938, no. 110A

Paris, Galerie André Weil, Degas: Peintre du mouvement, 1939, no. 13

Tübingen, Kunsthalle & Berlin, Nationalgalerie, Edgar Degas: Pastelle, Ölskizzen, Zeichnungen, 1984, no. 219, illustrated in colour in the catalogue

Paul-André Lemoisne, Degas et son oeuvre, Paris, 1946, vol. III, no. 1397, illustrated p. 809

Franco Russoli & Fiorella Minervino, L'Opera completa di Degas, Milan, 1970, no. 1143, illustrated p. 137

Good condition. Pastel on joined sheets laid down on paper. The pastel pigment is in a good, fresh, bright and unfaded condition. A little dusting of fixative is visible on a glancing light. A few scattered, small mold spots show at the foot and there is a little rubbed area next to the join on the upper left. The artist's tacking holes are visible in the corners. There is a split in the backing paper at the top along the join; this is now supported by conservation gauze. The pastel and its supports have been removed from the original board leaving some remains of these and a few thinned areas on all edges of the secondary support paper, on the verso. There are a few, minor repaired tears along the edges. This original board is mounted within the frame.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Danseuses au foyer is a fine example of Degas' late pastels depicting ballet dancers preparing for a performance. The artist's lifelong interest in dance developed in the 1860s, when as a young man he regularly attended the ballet and other performances such as opera, café-concerts and the circus. Degas was attracted to the spectacle and excitement of live entertainment and found in it an endless source of inspiration, sketching the performers from nature. In this manner he was able to study both the natural unguarded gestures of dancers at rest and the stylized movements of classical ballet. Degas was fascinated not only by the public spectacle of ballet performances, but also by the more informal situations around them: the behind-the-scenes world of the rehearsal room or the dance class, the dancers' preparation for and tension before a performance, and the more relaxed, casual moments that followed afterwards.

 

Throughout Degas' career, his treatment of this subject underwent a radical metamorphosis. In the later decades, the artist's visits to the ballet became less frequent and he began working increasingly from models in his studio in the rue Victor Massé. Whereas visits to the ballet had only afforded Degas fleeting demonstrations of the dancers' choreographed movements, the privacy of the studio presented him with the opportunity to pose a model in his preferred way. It was at this time that he began to work in series, a practice which opened up a wealth of creative possibilities. In the late 1890s, he executed several versions, including the present work, in the wings of the stage, anticipating their performance.

Degas has been fascinated with this theme since the earlier days of his career, and executed some remarkable early pastels. In his works of the 1890s, however, Degas' focus moved away from the linear, towards a new interest in colour, and the present work is a magnificent example of his newly found freedom of expression. The success of Degas' late pastels of dancers and their importance in the artist's œuvre was acknowledged by John Rewald: "In his [...] important pastels of dancers and nudes, he was gradually reducing the emphasis on line in order to seek the pictorial. Resorting to ever more vibrant colour effects, he found in his pastels a means to unite line and colour. While every pastel stroke became a colour accent, its function in the whole was often not different from that of the impressionist brush stroke. His pastels became multicoloured fireworks where all precision of form disappeared in favour of a texture that glittered with hatchings" (J. Rewald, The History of Impressionism, New York, 1973, p. 566).

Degas depictions of dancers were often first drawn nude and subsequently 'clothed' in the worked up pastels with tutus, shoes and other dancing paraphernalia, examples of which Degas kept in the studio. From these initial studies Degas would construct a dramatic and vivid scene without leaving the privacy of the studio. Furthermore, he often studied various poses of the dancers in sculpture, and used them as a basis for his compositions in pastel and oil. In Danseuses au foyer, the ballerinas appear to be focused on a performance already underway, as they peer towards the activity afar.

Starting with his pastels of the 1890s, Degas' focus moved away from the linear, towards a new interest in color, and the present work is a great example of his newly found freedom of expression, exploring a palette of strong, bright tones. While the contours of the women's bodies are clearly delineated in blue and black, the rest of the composition is colored in wide strokes of bright pigment. The background is depicted with a degree of abstraction, rendered in free strokes of pastel. This sense of spontaneity in execution is also reflected in his technique of using additional strips of paper. Degas often employed this practice in his mature works, adapting the size and shape of his support in such a way as to suit the emerging composition.