The Ballet Class
Hilaire-Germain-Edgar Degas, French, 1834 - 1917
Geography:
Made in France, Europe
Date:
c. 1880Medium:
Oil on canvasDimensions:
32 3/8 x 30 1/4 inches (82.2 x 76.8 cm) Framed: 41 1/2 × 39 5/8 × 2 5/8 inches (105.4 × 100.6 × 6.7 cm)Curatorial Department:
European PaintingObject Location:
W1937-2-1Credit Line:
Purchased with the W. P. Wilstach Fund, 1937
Made in France, Europe
Date:
c. 1880Medium:
Oil on canvasDimensions:
32 3/8 x 30 1/4 inches (82.2 x 76.8 cm) Framed: 41 1/2 × 39 5/8 × 2 5/8 inches (105.4 × 100.6 × 6.7 cm)Curatorial Department:
European PaintingObject Location:
Currently not on view
Accession Number:W1937-2-1Credit Line:
Purchased with the W. P. Wilstach Fund, 1937
Social Tags [?]
ballerina [x] ballet [x] ballet lesson [x] edgar degas [x] reading [x]In this everyday scene from backstage at the Paris Opéra, a ballet instructor observes two young dancers while a mother sits reading in the foreground. Degas spent a great deal of time in the corridors and rehearsal rooms of the Opéra, where he would have seen mothers like this one managing their young daughters' careers. Girls began official ballet classes at age seven or eight in hopes of becoming premiere dancers by their late teens.
