Dancers

Dancers, created by Edgar Degas between 1891 and 1901, represents the artist’s enduring fascination with the movement and intimate world of the ballet. This remarkable drawing is executed in pastel with charcoal on tracing paper, a complex combination of materials subsequently mounted onto paper and backed with gray board. The layering and integration of these diverse media highlight Degas's experimental approach to draftsmanship and color late in his career.

As a foundational figure of French Impressionism and later Post-Impressionism, Degas spent decades documenting the female form, providing an intimate visual record of fin-de-siècle Paris. He focused intensely on dancers both on stage and during informal moments of rehearsal, utilizing the richness and immediacy of charcoal and pastel to capture fleeting moments and dynamic poses. The specific dating of this work-1891 to 1901-places it within a period when the artist’s eyesight was deteriorating, prompting him to rely on broad, saturated planes of color rather than fine detail. This shift in technique gives Dancers a powerful abstract quality.

The work is classified as a drawing and originates from France. It is held in the prestigious collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Because of its age and importance, the original drawing is preserved carefully, though high-quality prints and related images are often available through institutions leveraging the public domain status of the original material.