
Public Domain
by Edgar Degas
Edgar Degas captured a dancer's shoes in this pastel study, part of his extensive documentation of ballet life. Between 1873 and 1874, he made several studies of dancers adjusting their shoes, shown from different angles. His masterful use of pastel builds up color in layers.
Degas created about 1,500 paintings and works on paper depicting dancers during his career. The chalky pastel medium allowed him to capture movement and texture with outstanding delicacy. These shoes represent not performance but the unglamorous preparation behind the art, showing dancers as hardworking craftspeople rather than ethereal figures.
Other masterpieces from the Impressionism movement

Claude Monet, 1926
Musée de l'Orangerie, Paris

Claude Monet, 1875
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

Pierre-Auguste Renoir, 1881
The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C.

Pierre-Auguste Renoir, 1881
Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago

James McNeill Whistler, 1871
Musée d'Orsay, Paris
Claude Monet, 1899
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Pierre-Auguste Renoir, 1881
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

Claude Monet, 1872
Musée d'Orsay, Paris
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