Ballet Onstage Rehearsal

The Rehearsal of the Ballet Onstage was created by Edgar Degas, around 1874. Degas used oil paints mixed with turpentine, along with watercolor and pastel over pen-and-ink drawing. It is displayed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Degas was a French artist who was most famous for painting and sculpting ballet dancers. He spent much of his time at the opera house, observing the dancers performing and practicing there. Degas did not always portray his dancers as the delicate, graceful figures we see in music boxes. Instead, he chose to paint them in a more realistic manner. A large amount of his paintings and drawings focus on simple things, like a dancer tying her pointe shoes or even relaxing with her hands on her hips. Degas gives us a peek into …show more content…
Instead of putting more focus on the ladies that are actually performing, Degas puts more emphasis on the dancers and the people behind the scenes. A man intently watches the dancers, making motions with his hands. He is most likely a teacher of some sort who is giving them corrections. Behind him, there are several girls waiting in the wings, not looking incredibly graceful. One has her leg propped up on some kind of bench, tying her shoe. Another yawns with her hands behind her head. There is even a girl sitting on the stage, possibly massaging her neck or fixing her hair. A few other dancers stand in the corner. One of them looks as if she's leaning on a prop. On the other side of the room, sit two men. These men are dressed in nice, black suits, relaxed on chairs. They are probably some of the many rich men who were subscribers to the opera house. If they paid for three seats a week, they were permitted to go into the foyer de la danse, which was like a green room where the dancers spent their time when they were not on stage. Here, they offered the dancers money, invitations to dinners, and