In the Wings

Painting and Sculpture of Europe

1899

Jean Louis Forain (French, 1852–1931)

In this backstage view of a Parisian opera house, ballerinas field advances from elegantly dressed male patrons, who approach them in pairs. The stoic dancer in the foreground, chin up and eyes downcast, absorbs the penetrating gaze of one large man while another looms just behind her, so close that his black top hat overlaps with her orange headdress. In 19th-century Paris, male abonnés (season ticket holders) had special access to a back room where they could socialize while watching the ballerinas warm up. Many took advantage of this privilege to sexually exploit the young dancers, who were well aware that their careers depended upon the good favor of this donor class.

Status: Currently Off View
Department: Painting and Sculpture of Europe

Artist: Jean Louis Forain
Title: In the Wings
Place: France (Artist's nationality:)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: 1899
Medium: Oil on canvas
Inscriptions: Inscribed upper right: Forain 1899
Dimensions: 60.5 × 73.8 cm (23 3/16 × 29 1/16 in.)
Credit Line: Mr. and Mrs. Martin A. Ryerson Collection
Reference Number: 1933.1118
IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.: https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/159770/manifest.json

“Exhibition of Forain Drawings,” Bulletin of the Art Institute of Chicago 17, 9 (1923), p. 108.
Daniel Catton Rich, “Forain,” Bulletin of the Art Institute of Chicago 25, 7 (1931), p. 97 (ill.).
Art Institute of Chicago, Paintings in the Art Institute of Chicago: A Catalogue of the Picture Collection (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 1961), p. 162.

The Arts Club of Chicago, Paintings by Jean-Louis Forain and Sculptures by Emile Bourdelle, December 15, 1922–January 5, 1923, cat. 9.
Art Institute of Chicago, A Century of Progress: Exhibition of Paintings and Sculpture, June 1–November 1, 1933, cat. 263.
Art Institute of Chicago, A Century of Progress: Exhibition of Paintings and Sculpture, June 1–November 1, 1934, cat. 277.
New York, Jacques Seligmann & Co., The Stage: A Loan Exhibition for the Benefit of the Public Education Association, April 3–22, 1939, cat. 24.
New York, American Federation of the Arts, Exhibition of Nineteenth Century French Paintings, 1948–1949; traveled to Dayton, Ohio, Dayton Art Institute, June 1–28 1948; Springfield, Missouri, Springfield Art Museum, August 1948; Saginaw, Michigan, The Saginaw Museum, December 19, 1948–January 9, 1949, cat. 11.; Memphis, Tennessee, Brooks Memorial Art Gallery, March 1–22, 1949; Utica, New York, The Munson Williams Proctor Institute, April 1949.
New York, The Jewish Museum, The Dreyfus Affair: Art, Truth, Justice, September 13, 1987–January 15, 1988, cat. 443.
Memphis, Tennessee, The Dixon Gallery and Gardens, Degas, Forain, Toulouse-Lautrec : Images of Dancers, October 13, 2002–January 5, 2003, no cat. no.

Durand-Ruel, Paris, by 1913 [Durand-Ruel stock book no. 3717]; sold to Martin A. Ryerson (died 1932), Chicago, for $1,200, November 29, 1913 [according to the receipt of sale from Durand-Ruel, copy in curatorial file]; bequeathed to the Art Institute, 1933.

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Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

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Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

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IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world.

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