Two Dancers

CC0 Public Domain Designation

Prints and Drawings

c. 1893–98

Edgar Degas
French, 1834-1917

Edgar Degas recorded ballet dancers at rest and in motion in a variety of media, producing numerous drawings, paintings, prints, and sculptures. The subject enabled Degas to study the movement of the human form and the contortions of the body. In this pastel, the performers wait behind the curtains, in the wings of the stage, and bend at the waist, arms akimbo, in preparation for their next appearance.

Status: Currently Off View
Department: Prints and Drawings

Artist: Hilaire Germain Edgar Degas
Title: Two Dancers
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.: 1893–1898
Medium: Pastel and charcoal, with stumping and burnishing, on tracing paper, pieced and laid down on cardboard
Inscriptions: Inscribed recto, lower right, in charcoal: "Degas"
Dimensions: 70.5 × 53.6 cm (27 13/16 × 21 1/8 in.)
Credit Line: Gift of Col. Robert R. McCormick to the Amy McCormick Memorial Collection
Reference Number: 1942.458
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/45243/manifest.json

J.B. Manson, The Life and Work of Edgar Degas (London, 1927).
P. A. Lemoisne, Degas et son Oeuvre 3 (Paris, 1946-1948), no. 1017 (ill.).
Lillian Browse, Degas Dancers (London, 1949), p. 404, no. 211 (ill.).
Paintings in The Art Institute of Chicago; A Catalogue of the Picture Collection (Chicago, 1961), p. 121.
Harold Joachim and Sandra Haller Olsen, French Drawings and Sketchbooks of the Nineteenth Century 2 (Chicago, 1979), p. 44, no. 2G5.
Richard Brettell, French Impressionists (Chicago, 1987), pp. 97, 99, and 117 (ill.).
Richard Kendall, Degas Beyond Impressionism (London, 1996), no. 77 (ill.).
Jean Sutherland Boggs, Degas (Chicago, 1996), pp. 57, 102 (ill.), and 110, pl. 31.
Richard Norton Smith, The Colonel; The Life and Legend of Robert R. McCormick (Boston, 1997), p. 262.
Joseph Czestochowski, Edgar Degas: The Complete Sculptures (2002).

The Art Institute of Chicago, “Degas in The Art Institute of Chicago,” July 19-September 23, 1984, pp. 173-175, cat. 83 (ill.), cat. by Richard R. Brettell and Suzanne Folds McCullagh.
London, National Gallery, “Degas: Beyond Impressionism,” May 22-August 26, 1996, pp. 264-265, cat. 77 (ill.), cat. by Richard Kendall; traveled to The Art Institute of Chicago, September 28, 1996-January 5, 1997.

Estate of the artist; sold, Paris, Galerie Georges Petit, May 4-5, 1918, first Degas estate sale, lot 129. Trotti, Paris [Lemoisne 1946]. Durand-Ruel, New York [Lemoisne 1946]. Amy McCormick (1880-1939), Chicago, by 1932 [Smith 1997]; by descdent to her husband, Col. Robert R. McCormick (1880-1955), Chicago; given to the Art Institute, 1942.

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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.

Learn more.