Edgar Degas

The artist's studio (sold: Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, Atelier Edgar Degas, première vente, 7th & 8th May 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, USA (sold: Christie's, New York, 12th May 1993, lot 19)
Purchased at the above sale by the present owner

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

Executed on joined sheets of paper, laid down on paper which is attached to the artist's original board. There are several artist's pinholes at the edges, some of which have resulted in small nicks at the extreme edges. There are three small spots on the lower strip of paper (visible in the catalogue illustration), and some very slight frame rubbing at the edges. The pastel is fresh and unfaded and the work in overall in very good condition. Colours: In comparison to the printed catalogue illustration, the colours are overall more subtle and slightly deeper in original.
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NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

Danseuses au foyer reflects Degas' lifelong fascination with dance, and particularly with the ballerinas' more informal moments before or after a performance, which characterised his later pastels. Whilst in his early career the artist was attracted to the public spectacle of live entertainment and the stylised, choreographed movements of classical ballet, he later became interested in 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 atmosphere that followed afterwards. Around the turn of the century, Degas executed a number of works showing two dancers sharing an intimate backstage moment, a subject that enabled him to focus on the psychological aspect of his models.

 

Jill De Vonyar and Richard Kendall wrote: 'The emotional and practical challenges of this pairing evidently gripped the artist, who made larger and smaller alternatives in square, vertical, and horizontal patterns that covered the psychological spectrum from serenity to near-hysteria. [...] The subject chosen by Degas for [...] many pastels and paintings from his late decades, is tellingly neutral in ballet terms. His models are now far too occupied with their hair, their clothing, and their bodies to be part of a performance, and their gestures have no place in the choreography of the day. Yet they are dressed in gorgeously colored costumes and stand against lushly painted [background], evidently on or near the edge of a stage' (J. De Vonyar & R. Kendall, Degas and the Dance (exhibition catalogue), The Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit & Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, 2002-03, pp. 262 & 268).

 

Starting with his pastels of the 1890s, Degas' focus moved away from the linear, towards a new interest in colour, and the present work is a great example of his newly found freedom of expression, exploring a palette of strong, bright tones. Whilst the contours of the women's bodies are clearly delineated in blue and black, the rest of the composition is coloured 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.

 

The success of Degas' late pastels and their importance in the artist's oeuvre 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).