Hilaire-Germain-Edgar Degas, 'Ballet Dancers', 1888

Ballet held an endless fascination for Degas, whose studies of dancers occupied him for more than fifty years. Over half of his oeuvre was dedicated to the subject which he explored in a variety of media, from oils and pastels to sculptures and drawings.

Degas enjoyed capturing moments behind the scenes, often depicting dancers in rehearsal or at rest rather than on stage. Ballet Dancers is a typically informal portrayal of four ballerinas in the wings, relaxing during a moment’s repose. The work highlights the physical demands of the profession, offering us a snapshot into the reality of the dancers’ everyday life as opposed to the artifice of the performance.

Dressed in vibrant orange and turquoise tutus, the dancers are placed along a diagonal line within an asymmetrical composition cropped at the lower right, reflecting the influence of Japanese prints. In the foreground, the first ballerina squats down, maybe to tend to a sore muscle or to adjust a ribbon. The dancer behind her, visibly exhausted, rests her head in one hand. Behind them, a third dancer stands naturally in fourth position but her weight is relaxed onto one hip. She holds a brightly coloured fan. A fourth ballerina leans against a wall, perhaps observing the action on stage. The long, dark hair of a fifth dancer is just visible in the background, in the centre of the composition.

Ballet Dancers employs the complex pastel technique favoured by the artist from the 1880s in which he layered, blended and smudged the tones to create the effect of vivid colours. Although this seems to be a rapidly improvised pastel without preparatory drawing, such works were often the result of carefully designed composition. In Degas’s words, 'One must do the same subject over again ten times, a hundred times. In art nothing must resemble an accident, not even movement’. Each of the figures in this composition is, therefore, derived from earlier preparatory studies of individual dancers which were then used by Degas as source material for a variety of finished pieces, combining the figures creatively together, as is the case here.

Each dancer can also be recognised in a number of other works by the artist. For example, the figure leaning against the wall can be compared to Dancer of 1888 (The Burrell Collection, Glasgow), and the young woman standing next to her appears again in Dancer with a Fan of about 1890–5 (The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York). The pose of this second dancer with her hand resting on one hip may have derived in part from one of Degas’s sculptural works, Dancer at Rest, her Hands on her Hips, Right Leg Forward, which the artist found invaluable in his study of the female form.

Signed at the bottom left corner, Ballet Dancers was initially acquired by the art dealer Paul Durand-Ruel, who spent his life supporting, collecting and promoting the work of the Impressionists.