Hilaire-Germain-Edgar Degas, 'Ballet Dancers', about 1890-1900

The dancers in Degas’s painting are clouded in a mist of tulle, but two striking heads of red hair seem to anchor the blurred forms moving in space. Arms and legs curve and stretch, delicate white skirts toss and sway. The white tutus depicted here are the practice dress worn by the younger dancers at the Paris Opéra in the late nineteenth century. They are a recurring feature in Degas’s many paintings of graceful and seemingly weightless dancers, whether in the rehearsal salon or on the stage.

Degas had access to all parts of the theatre at the Opéra, and this painting displays his detailed knowledge of a dancer’s training. These young women are shown in class, in the moments between preparatory exercises at the barre and the real, demanding steps included in a stage performance. The dancer closest to us rests her foot on the bench to adjust the ribbons of her shoe. Even in an ungainly pose she is elegant, displaying her strong, expressive back. Directly behind her, other dancers move from one undefined position to another, although one clearly rises on pointe in arabesque, her leg stretched behind her, her fingers lightly touching the wall to steady herself.

The texture of the paint on the canvas seems almost as ephemeral as the dancers‘ costumes – it is delicate, almost cobweb-like, and the canvas support shows through in places. In the late 1880s Degas began to use pastel with which he could ’draw with colour‘, and although this picture is painted in oil, it has the dry, powdery look of pastel and, as with pastel, the colours are subtly layered and blended.

While Degas spent many hours in the theatre and probably made sketches and drawings on the spot, most of his work was done in his studio, where dancers came to pose for him. But he also believed that drawing from memory was essential in the creative process. The scenes, set either in the salon or on stage, and with their distinctive atmospheres, were created using drawings but also through the filter of memory.

The artist once wrote that ’it is necessary to do a subject ten times, a hundred times. Nothing in art must seem an accident'. Since they were small children, the dancers would have trained daily in the steps and positions that are the vocabulary of classical ballet, performing them over and over again. Even in repose during a class or waiting in the wings during a performance, dancers repeat themselves – they practice a difficult step, adjust their costumes, scratch their backs, slump in a moment of exhaustion and constantly bend and stretch to keep warm.

Degas repeats these characteristic movements in many of his pictures, perhaps not entirely for aesthetic reasons: repetition is exactly what the dancers do. It also seems connected to his own committed work ethic – he practised his craft tirelessly, making countless drawings and preparatory studies for every painting. It’s as if he recognised an affinity with these ethereal creatures whose life was dedicated to the hard, often grinding, practice and effort of producing any work of art that appears impromptu and effortless.