Edgar Degas

Degas’s pastels provide stimulating sources of study for any art or design student investigating light, form, and composition. In this work, footlights set aglow the young dancer with a bouquet at center stage. Behind her stand two groups of ballerinas, which Degas depicted with lengthy passages of bright orange, blue, and green pastel punctuated by the occasional dot of a bright flower. As a foil to these brilliant colors, Degas bathed the immediate foreground—a balcony and spectator—in shadowy brown and black gouache. Degas began the composition with a monotype (a work whose technique allows only one printing), over which he drew with pastel. He also added a strip of paper at the bottom of the sheet in order to accommodate the addition of the figure and her dramatic fan, leaving one to wonder if she were a compositional afterthought.