Edgar Degas

Estate of the artist (sold: Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, Atelier Edgar Degas, 1ère vente, 6th-8th May 1918, lot 295)

Oscar Stettiner, Paris (purchased at the above sale)

Justin K. Thannhauser, New York

Barbara Shields Crowley, New York (sold: Sotheby's, New York, 17th May 1990, lot 120)

Acquired by the present owner in 1993

Paul-André Lemoisne, Degas et son œuvre, Paris, 1946, vol. III, no. 1326, illustrated p. 775

Franco Russoli & Fiorella Minervino, L'Opera completa di Degas, Milan, 1970, no. 1120, illustrated p. 136

Executed on two joined sheets of cream laid paper, laid down on the artist's board, which has been laid down on board. There are artist's pinholes at intervals along the extreme edges. The pastel is fresh and unfaded. Apart from a small water stain underneath the skirt of the right-hand figure and a very fine hairline surface abrasion to the dancer's skirt in the top left, only visible at close inspection, this work is in very good condition. Colours: Overall fairly accurate in the printed catalogue illustration, although slightly fresher and more contrasted in the original.
"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. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
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."

Executed shortly before the turn of the century, Deux danseuses au foyer depicts one of Degas’ favourite subjects – ballet dancers preparing for a performance. By the time he executed the present work Degas had unfettered access to the backstage of the opera where he and his friends the Vicomte Lepic, Albert Boulanger-Cavé and Ludovic Halévy consorted with the performers. Degas also sought permission to attend the dance classes at the rue Le Peletier given by Jules Perrot, which enabled him to observe dancers in a variety of emotional and physical states. Degas utilised this advantageous position for similar reasons that provoked his other work, and Richard Kendall suggests: ‘As in his other studies of the working women of Paris, from laundresses to prostitutes, Degas was evidently committed to making art for his fellow citizens out of the raw material that nourished their luxury and pleasure. At the Opéra, this necessarily involved what Eunice Lipton has called the “demystification of the dance”, a matter-of-fact engagement with long hours in class and rehearsal room, where youthful physiques were tuned for their fleeting roles in the footlights’ (R. Kendall in Degas and the Dance(exhibition catalogue), The Detroit Museum of Arts, Detroit, 2002-03, p. 137).

Throughout Degas’ career, his treatment of this subject underwent a radical metamorphosis. In the later decades, the artist’s visits to the ballet became less frequent and he began working increasingly from models in his studio and, beginning in the 1890s, from his own photographs. Whereas visits to the ballet had only afforded Degas fleeting demonstrations of the dancers’ choreographed movements, the privacy of the studio presented him with the opportunity to pose a model in his preferred way. The present work is one of several pastels Degas executed around 1898 on the theme of two dancers depicted either before or after a performance. In his pastels of the 1890s, the artist’s focus moved away from the linear, towards a new interest in colour, and the present work exemplifies this newly found freedom of expression.