Impressionists Blog

Degas (1834-1917) obsessively studied the ballet and more than half of his huge catalog of work — from his stunning pastels to the radical paintings late in his career — involve the dance.

They are not glamorous portraits of performances or star ballerinas. Instead, Degas focuses on intimate scenes — the backstage drudgery and sweat of the corps. He is an interloper, capturing private moments from a hidden corner.

Through him, we get to see the ballet world from the inside out.

Surprisingly, there has never been a major exhibit devoted entirely to Degas and his fascination with the ballet world.

Until now.

“Degas and the Dance” running through May 11 at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, features 136 pieces by Degas, including paintings, works on paper and sculptures. In addition, the exhibit features costume designs, stage sets, other artist’s sculptures and photographs of the dancers to give visitors a more intimate knowledge of 19th century French ballet.

The exhibit was co-curated by Jill De Vonyar, a former dancer and art historian, and Richard Kendall, considered one of the world’s leading authorities on Degas.

It is a stunning exhibit, but then Degas is a stunning artist.

Almost all of his dance pieces have that wonderful quality that art masterpieces possess — a sense that no matter how radical it was in its day, it looks and feels like it has always existed.

It might be hard to believe that the work of Degas was considered radical, but it was.

His choice of subjects, his use of color and his fascination with the inner workings of the ballet were all somewhat scandalous in the art world.

Degas painted the working-class women who came to the ballet to escape poverty. He didn’t make them look beautiful. He showed them sweating, he showed them bored, he showed them working.

His choice of subjects often raised eyebrows.

For example, his famous sculpture, “Little Dancer, Aged Fourteen,” caused a sensation when it was exhibited at the Sixth Impressionist Exhibition in 1881.

The girl was not a star of the ballet and worse yet, she was an adolescent dancer in training. At that time, puberty was not considered a fit subject for polite society.

What’s more, Degas used real clothing and real hair in the sculpture, which challenged set ideas about art and realism. (This exhibit features a bronze casting, but Degas did the original work in wax. It was the only sculpture Degas exhibited in his lifetime.)

While Degas exhibited with the Impressionists, he did not share their obsession with natural light. Most of his work was done inside. He was classically trained and a master draftsman — probably the finest of his generation.

“Degas began life as a conventionally trained artist. He loved the old masters,” says Kendall. “But his work became utterly radical and controversial. He was like the Andy Warhol of his day.”

Little is known about Degas’s personal life. He loved going to the Paris opera, had friends and successfully sold his work, but little is known about the details of his relationships with the dancers with whom he was obsessed. Most scholars believe he was not involved with them sexually.

But Degas did portray the sexual bartering that often went on backstage.

Women did not attend the ballet. It was a world filled with sexual traffic between the dancers and the wealthy, influential men who bought subscriptions — the abonnes — who were permitted backstage.

It can be presumed they were interested in more than the art of the dance.

The sight of a woman’s body was not permissible in polite society, according to De Vonyar. The dancers — despite having to wear corsets that confined their movements — showed plenty of skin.

“A lot of dancers were poor,” she explains. “It was known that some dancers were sexually available to these men. Some were semi- prostitutes, some were chaste and their mothers were with them. But there was definitely sexual traffic.”

In many of his pieces, Degas paints men in top coats hovering around the periphery of the canvas. These are the ever-present abonnes.

The exhibit is divided into several themed rooms, including “Degas as a Portraitist,” “The Classroom,” “On Stage,” “In the Wings.”

His pastel work is stunning and even his charcoal sketches are rich and intense.

The final area in the exhibit, the aptly titled “Orgies of Color,” is where Degas let loose with color in a radical way.

His forms become more abstract, his colors more intense.

The oil paintings in this last gallery, which were created when Degas was in his 70s, serve to show what a huge influence Degas was on the generation of artists waiting in the wings, including Matisse and Picasso.

“Until the end of his career,” Kendall explains, “Degas was on the cutting edge.”