Degas and the Ballet: Picturing Movement

The Royal Academy
(Until 11th December 2011)

Ballerinas are renowned for their distinctive posture, incredible poise, intense discipline and above all, their graceful elegance. These are all qualities that Degas masterfully captured in abundance during his long career; as he observed, drew, painted, sculpted and even photographed, towards the end of his career, numerous dancers. This exhibition is particularly interested in the influence that the introduction of photography had during Degas’s lifetime, 1834–1917.

Degas made hundreds of drawings of dancers exercising in the classroom. Sometimes these preparatory drawings would focus solely on a particular aspect of the dancer’s body, such as the calves and pointed feet; whilst on other occasions penciled notes accompany a sketch of a dancer; or a pencil grid is positioned behind the dancer so that proportions can be worked out correctly. The sheer volume of these sketches, suggest that Degas wanted his work to be accurate from both an artistic and scientific perspective. This is a concern that continued throughout his career, particularly as he became interested in the work of the scientist and chronophotographer, Étienne - Jules Marey, and his scientific studies of movement.

Degas innovatively sketched and drew moving subjects, at a time when photography was not yet advanced enough to do the same. Limitations within the photographic medium, during his early career, meant that ballerinas had to freeze in position for the camera. Much of Degas’s work shows a compelling interest between, depictions of the body at rest, and depictions of the body in motion: The Rehearsal provides a good example. In the foreground of this painting, one dancer rests and another has her costume adjusted; whilst in the background, a group of dancers practice together and another dancer can be spotted hurrying down the stairs.

 Degas,The Rehearsal, c.1874. Image © Culture and Sport Glasgow (Museums)
 Sport Glasgow 

In the 1870s, Degas began an intriguing group of panoramic paintings which depict scenes from ballet practice rooms. Although most of the ballerinas in these paintings are stationary, the way in which Degas encourages the viewer to scan the picture from side to side and from the foreground into the background creates a kind of animation. The implied movement of a stationary object was a key concern of Degas’s and it is depicted in his paintings and sculptures through subtle hints: the placement of a dancer’s feet, her leaning torso, or the position of a raised limb.

Degas, Little Dancer Aged Fourteen, 1880-81,
Image © Tate, London, 2010

As would be expected, Little Dancer aged Fourteen - Degas’s only sculpture that was exhibited publicly during his lifetime - forms the highlight of the exhibition. The curators encourage the viewer to consider this famous sculpture from a new perspective through their arrangement of Degas’s preparatory drawings. These show that Degas originally observed and drew his muse, Marie van Goethem, whilst circling her and moving rather like a film camera would nowadays. However, it was Degas’s trio of Bronze Nudes that stole the show for me. These sculptures show three different phases of the same movement and they were originally made in wax before being cast in bronze after Degas’s death. An interesting paradox exists in ballet, whereby a ballerina must always appear graceful, elegant and light; but also be strong, robust and immovable, whilst holding a difficult position, often with raised limbs and for a prolonged period of time. The extensive periods that Degas spent in the company of dancers, observing their every movements, meant that he was fully aware of this paradox, as his sculptures testify. The agile, flexible figure of a ballerina is depicted in a solid medium and in the process, Degas ensures that the dancer retains all the elegance which forms the crux of her identity as a ballerina.

Degas, Dancer: Fourth Position Front on the Left Leg, c.1883-1888

Image © Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge

As Degas’s prolific sketches of individual ballerinas indicate, he was just as interested in the preparation that comes before a final performance, as he was in the end product. Seemingly inconsequential actions such as a dancer adjusting her dress, or re-positioning her feet, caught his attention. It is Degas’s attention to delicate details and subtle movements, that make his work so impressive. Visiting the Degas exhibition at the Royal Academy made me desperate to take up ballet again.