Edgar Degas

Rodriguez Collection
Durand-Ruel, Paris (acquired from the above on August 11, 1893 and sold: Durand-Ruel, Paris, August 9, 1894, no. 2824)
William H. Crocker Collection, San Francisco (acquired at the above sale)
Prince André Poniatowski, Paris
Gonzales Family (and sold: Jacques Lenormand et Patrick Dayen, Paris, December 4, 1991, lot 62)
Acquired at the above sale

Martigny, Fondation Pierre Gianadda, Degas, 1993, no. 36, illustrated in the catalogue
New York and London, Colnaghi (Jean-Luc Baroni Ltd.), 1997, no. 48
Detroit, Detroit Institute of the Arts; Philadelphia, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Degas and the Dance, 2002-2003, illustrated in the catalogue

Executed on buff colored wove paper laid down on paper. Backing sheet is t-hinged to a mat at upper corners on verso. Top edge is deckled. Artist pinholes at all four corners. Faint mat stain around the perimeter. Sheet is slightly undulated and there are a few minor nicks and tears along extreme edges but overall the work is in very good condition.
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.

Degas'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. He 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.

Degas was a frequent visitor to the new Opéra in Paris, designed by Charles Garnier, which was inaugurated in January 1875.  It was here that he met many of the dancers who became the subject of his oils, pastels and drawings. "Degas had come to know many of the dancers at the Opéra intimately: he had devoted nearly half his professional life to an extended study of their daily routines and to putting what he observed onto paper and canvas, or into wax and clay.  Their work sustained a great deal of his own, a dependence noted in reviews of the Impressionist exhibitions, where one critic suggested in 1879 that Degas had himself become 'one of those remarkable coryphées,' and another hailed him the following year, possibly for the first time, as 'the painter of dancers'" (Jill De Vonyar & Richard Kendall, Degas and the Dance (exhibition catalogue), The Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit & The Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, 2002-03 p. 195).

Le Repos de la danseuse captures the hidden world behind the scenes of the Palais Garnier's spectacular ballet productions. Degas' profound sensitivity to the existential condition of this lone dancer is evident, singled out among the many young women of the company anticipating their turn or resting after an exhausting performance.  One is struck by the picture's voyeuristic appeal, which engages us with this young women's sensorial experience at a particular moment in time. Degas transports us into this rarefied scene, away from the pretense of a staged performance. No other artist of his time was able to present this exclusive atmosphere so convincingly or capture the often overlooked beauty of its informality. As the contemporary critic Jules Claretie wrote, "he knows and depicts the backstage world of the theater like no-one else, the dance foyers, the essential appeal of the Opéra rats in their bouffant skirts" (quoted in ibid, p. 63).

The present work was part of the William H. Crocker Collection. Mr. & Mrs. Crocker were the leading patrons of Impressionism on the West Coast in the late 19th century.