Footnotes

Provenance
Atelier Edgar Degas, Paris; his Estate sale, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, 2^nd sale, December 11-13, 1918, lot 375.
M. Pellet Collection, Paris.
Sale: Sotheby's, London, December 11, 1969, lot 32.
Spencer Samuels Collection, New York.
Fletcher Jones Collection, California; his sale, Christie's, London, December 2, 1975, lot 171.
Galerie Jan Krugier, Geneva.
Acquired from the above by the present owner in the 1980s.

Literature
P.-A. Lemoisne, Degas et son oeuvre, vol. III, New York & London, 1984, no. 1296 bis (illustrated p. 755).


Deux danseuses comes from an exalted tradition of the dancer motif, explored prodigiously throughout Edgar Degas's oeuvre. Like his Impressionist contemporaries, Degas sought to reconcile an increasingly urbanized world by capturing fleeting moments in the rapid movements of modern life. With little interest in capturing plein-air landscapes, Degas instead took inspiration from everyday urban life. He was particularly interested in scenes of public entertainment, and frequently captured moments from horse races, theaters, café-concerts, and the circus. It was in the world of ballet, though, where Degas found true inspiration and passion. Degas's predilection for color, dynamism, and experimentation flourished within the grandiose halls of the Parisian Opéra and dance studios across the city, soon developing into an obsession with the ballet. By the 1870s, Degas's dedication and enthusiasm for dance had reached such a fervor that critics dubbed him the "painter of dancers" (Ronald Pickvance, Degas 1879, exh. cat, Edinburgh, 1979, p. 17). Even today, Degas is most closely associated with the subject of dance, and for good reason: throughout his artistic career, Degas produced approximately 1,500 works depicting the ballet across numerous mediums.

Degas's prolific output of dance imagery is both a testament to modernity and a celebration of classical beauty, pastel colors, and graceful form. His ability to record the finest subtleties of movement, texture, and light observed across the world of dance demonstrates an unmatched level of artistic virtuosity and dedication. Degas often would return to the same subject multiple times, exploring it from a different angle or isolating a singular form so as to capture every last nuance of movement and gesture. Remarking on his constant repetition of subjects, Degas once said "One must repeat the same subject ten times, a hundred times... nothing in art, not even movement, must seem an accident" (quoted in Lillian Schacherl, Edgar Degas: Dancers and Nudes, New York, 1997, p. 18). Degas also explored familiar imagery across different media forms, constantly developing new means best equipped to capture the various motifs within the world of dance. When he finally stopped working in 1912, five years before his death, Degas had represented the world of ballet through paint, sculpture, charcoal drawings, prints, and even photography.

Deux danseuses, a counterproof pulled from a monotype and enhanced with pastel, is a direct reflection of Degas's innovative engagement with various techniques. Since purchasing a large studio in 1890, Degas was able to produce his drawings, prints, sculptures, oil paintings, pastels, and photographs in one place, facilitating a continuous, cohesive dialogue across various forms. The present work was a printed study of a pastel work, also titled Deux danseuses, held in The National Museum of Fine Arts, Stockholm. Naturally, the impression pulled to create the present work is a mirror to the original pastel, but Degas also removes all distinctive features from the background. The nondescript background ensures that any sense of setting is subsidiary to the dancers and the tension emanating from their physical forms. Despite variations in background and color, both iterations of Deux danseuses have a compelling similarity to Dancer Adjusting Her Shoulder Strap, a photograph taken in Degas's rue Victor Massé studio the year prior. The rudimentary photograph, made from a negative on a gelatin dry plate, captures one of his dancer models in her bodice and tutu. The young ballerina bends both of her arms, adjusting her strap in a manner highly reminiscent to the poses of each dancer in the present work.

The personal, meditative quality of Deux danseuses is highly typical of Degas's mature work. Degas had a keen eye for detail and enjoyed the technical skill and innovation needed to recreate his observations. As a result, Degas showed interest not only in the public spectacle surrounding the ballet performances, but the more intimate, subdued moments leading up to – and winding down from – the dazzling moments on stage. In his later years, Degas frequently depicted behind-the-scenes moments from dance rehearsals: ballerinas tensely waiting in the wings, preparations for dance class, and private scenes evoking toilette imagery. In fact, around three-quarters of his dance-related subjects are concerned with events that transpired beyond the public eye, often offering viewers a psychological portrait of the preoccupied dancer. In Deux danseuses, the two women face away from the viewer, their facial features are obscured and the background in which they stand against is nondescript. One reaches up to fix her hair while the other ballerina appears to be adjusting her earring, both preparing for an invisible, yet palpable audience.

Executed in 1897, this counterproof was created at the artist's peak maturity and is evidentiary of the great continuity, yet profound innovation found in Degas's final dance images. This extraordinary work on paper features subtly modulated strokes of blue, orange and green juxtaposed atop disciplined lines and brief passages of raw, uncovered paper. Degas's masterful interweaving of ink and pastel breathes an air of life into the work. Feathered strokes of pastel across line conjures up the pleats of each dancer's tutu, while the blending of shadowed tone conveys a quiet strength emanating from each figure. Degas once complained to Parisian art dealer Ambroise Vollard that: "it has never occurred to them that my chief interest in dancers lies in rendering movement and painting pretty clothes" (quoted in Ambroise Vollard, Degas (1834–1917), Paris, 1924, pp. 109 – 110.) The lyrical articulation of form and color in Deux danseuses is a testament to Degas's mastery, and the rightful designation of his dancers as part of the greatest art of the early twentieth century.