Edgar Degas, 'Russian Dancers', about 1899.
London, The National Gallery.

Recent Acquisition

'Russian Dancers'

about 1899

Edgar Degas
(1834 - 1917)

NG6581

At the very end of the 19th century, Degas executed a series of pastel paintings showing exuberant and brightly costumed Russian women dancing with abandon. They have been called 'one of the most unexpected departures of his late career.'

Julie Manet, the daughter of the painter Berthe Morisot, first saw them when she visited Degas on 1 July 1899: 'He discussed painting with us, then suddenly said, "I'm going to show you some veritable orgies of colour that I'm doing at the moment", and showed us up to his studio. We were very touched as he never shows anyone what he's working on. He got out three pastels of women in Russian costumes with flowers in their hair, pearl necklaces, skirts in bright colours and red boots, dancing in an imaginary landscape that looked most realistic.'

This work may have been one of the pastels Julie Manet saw that day. Degas had studied the poses of individual figures, as well as the placement of the three figures seen here, in large preliminary charcoal drawings, sparingly touched with pastel, before moving on to such highly worked pastels, brightly coloured overall, indeed, encrusted with pigment. Here, the artist added a large strip to the bottom of the sheet but not enough to include the foot of the foreground dancer. This simple device of cropping the foot, as well as the blurring of forms, gives rise to the impression that, as spectators, we are standing thrillingly close to the action, almost more participants than audience.

The National Gallery is grateful for the generous gift of this pastel from the Sara Lee Corporation, which has its headquarters in Chicago. It is one of more than 50 works of 19th- and 20th-century art that the corporation donated as its Millennium Gift to public museums and galleries in North America. Europe, Australia and Asia.

Following a farewell international tour of the collection, 'Russian Dancers' was presented to the Director, Neil MacGregor, on 10 October by John H. Bryan, chairman of Sara Lee.

Pastel on tracing paper, 73 x 59.1 cm.

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