The depiction of ballet and ballerinas by Edgar Degas is simply permeated with subtle beauty and grace. A lot of sketches, sketches and completed works of the artist have survived, depicting certain scenes and episodes from the life of the ballet. Degas was indeed very fascinated by the grace and plasticity of the dancers, but at the same time he almost admired their hard work and hours of training. How much time and effort do very young girls have to spend in order to hone to perfection and perform a dance, which will be applauded by a huge auditorium.
The paintings of Edgar Degas, depicting ballerinas, are almost always full of sparkling joy, but they also have a downside: the faces of these airy creatures in packs bear the stamp of fatigue and echo of the enormous work and stress associated with their beautiful from the outside activity. This is especially evident in the paintings describing the backstage life of ballet dancers.
The girl in Degas’s painting “Dance Lesson” is depicted in a very vital and organic way, exercising near the machine. A little teenage girl, not yet fully formed, is engaged in performing simple, but for her so far very difficult steps to the accompaniment of a violin. Continuing to work hard, she will undoubtedly turn from such an ugly duckling into a real swan.
The violinist plays with a detached expression on his face, his thoughts are hovering somewhere far away, apparently, rushed after the melody that the hands automatically play. Strange, but this state is transmitted to the novice dancer, she also automatically repeats the movements made a thousand times already, dreaming of something childish.
Painting “Dance Lesson” by Edgar Degas surprisingly transports the viewer through the art of painting into the world of art of dance and painting.
Year of painting: 1879.
Dimensions of the painting: 65 x 56 cm.
Material: no data.
Writing technique: pastel.
Genre: genre painting.
Style: impressionism.
Gallery: Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA.