“The costumes of the dancers on stage become vibrant bursts of color which fuse with the equally indistinct stage props; together the forms hover on the edge of legibility, almost disintegrating into an abstract pattern of light and colour. At centre, the dancers’ bodies are suggested with the utmost precision. They are little more than a sequence of legs creating a steady rhythm and articulating a dynamic path which bridges the groups of dancers in the foreground.

The vigorous application of paint, for much of which Degas used his thumb to apply, as evidenced by the prints discernible across the canvas, is especially intense in the highlights across the shoulders and on the faces of the dancers in the foreground. This dense application resembles the artist’s similarly aggressive use of pastel in later drawings, where the character of individual strokes often approximates the fluidity of a paint pigment. In its heightened abstraction and forceful fragmentation, as well as its strong colors and sharp highlights, the present work conveys an enhanced immediacy clearly seeming to seize a passing moment in the wings.”

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Edgar Degas At Sunnyside

Edgar Degas at wikimedia

Edgar Degas at TheMet

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Edgar Degas at wikiwand

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