Where Is The Dance Class? Museum Location

Q: Why did Degas paint so many dancers?

Degas found dancers ideal subjects for studying the body in motion. The backstage world also appealed to his interest in showing labor and rehearsal rather than polished performance.

Q: Who is the man with the stick?

Jules Perrot was a famous ballet master who trained dancers at the Paris Opera. Degas included him in several paintings, using him as a compositional anchor.

Q: What does The Dance Class depict?

Edgar Degas the pale tutus create a frothy mass against the brown floor. He painted over 1,500 works depicting dancers, capturing the physical labor behind artistic grace.

Edgar Degas painted the The Dance Class in 1874, showing ballet dancers practicing at the Paris Opera. The elderly ballet master Jules Perrot leans on his stick while young dancers stretch, adjust their costumes, and await their turn.

Degas cropped the composition unconventionally, cutting off figures at the frame's edge like a photograph. The pale tutus create a frothy mass against the brown floor. He painted over 1,500 works depicting dancers, capturing the physical labor behind artistic grace. It hangs at the Metropolitan Museum.

Degas found dancers ideal subjects for studying the body in motion. The backstage world also appealed to his interest in showing labor and rehearsal rather than polished performance.

Jules Perrot was a famous ballet master who trained dancers at the Paris Opera. Degas included him in several paintings, using him as a compositional anchor.

Edgar Degas the pale tutus create a frothy mass against the brown floor. He painted over 1,500 works depicting dancers, capturing the physical labor behind artistic grace.

The Dance Class

Details

Where to See It

The Artist

More by Edgar Degas

Singer in Green

Madame Rene De Gas

Dancers Practicing at the Barre

Mademoiselle Malo

Also at The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Lion felling a bull, from a marble pediment

Marble statue of a lion

Supper at Emmaus

Stela of the royal scribe Amunnakht praising the divine barque of Amun-Re, Lord of the Thrones of the Two Lands

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Luncheon of the Boating Party

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Arrangement in Grey and Black No.1

Bridge over a Pond of Water Lilies

Luncheon of the Boating Party

Impression, Sunrise

About The Dance Class

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