{
"data": {
"id": 95271,
"accession_number": "1916.1043",
"share_license_status": "CC0",
"tombstone": "Dancers, c. 1896. Edgar Degas (French, 1834\u20131917). Pastel with charcoal on tracing paper mounted on paper and backed with gray board; sheet: 55.7 x 41.4 cm (21 15/16 x 16 5/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. J. H. Wade, 1916.1043",
"current_location": null,
"title": "Dancers",
"creation_date": "c. 1896",
"creation_date_earliest": 1891,
"creation_date_latest": 1901,
"artists_tags": [
"male"
],
"culture": [
"France, 19th century"
],
"technique": "pastel with charcoal on tracing paper mounted on paper and backed with gray board",
"support_materials": [],
"department": "Drawings",
"collection": "DR - French",
"type": "Drawing",
"measurements": "Sheet: 55.7 x 41.4 cm (21 15/16 x 16 5/16 in.)",
"dimensions": {
"sheet": {
"height": 0.557,
"height_inch": 21,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.9375,
"width": 0.414,
"width_inch": 16,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.3125
}
},
"state_of_the_work": null,
"edition_of_the_work": null,
"copyright": null,
"inscriptions": [
{
"inscription": "inscribed, lower left, in pastel: Degas",
"inscription_translation": null,
"inscription_remark": null,
"sortorder": null
}
],
"exhibitions": {
"current": [
{
"id": 338065,
"title": "French Art Since Eighteen Hundred",
"description": "French Art Since Eighteen Hundred. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 8-December 8, 1929).",
"opening_date": "1929-11-08T05:00:00"
},
{
"id": 312517,
"title": "The Twentieth Anniversary Exhibition: The Official Art Exhibit of the Great Lakes Exposition",
"description": "The Twentieth Anniversary Exhibition: The Official Art Exhibit of the Great Lakes Exposition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 26-October 4, 1936).",
"opening_date": "1936-06-26T04:00:00"
},
{
"id": 312341,
"title": "The Silver Jubilee Exhibition",
"description": "The Silver Jubilee Exhibition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 23-September 28, 1941).",
"opening_date": "1941-06-23T04:00:00"
},
{
"id": 312333,
"title": "French Drawings and Watercolors from French Public and Private Collections",
"description": "French Drawings and Watercolors from French Public and Private Collections. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (January 6-February 15, 1942).",
"opening_date": "1942-01-06T05:00:00"
},
{
"id": 312176,
"title": "19th and 20th Century French Art and Leonard C. Hanna, Jr. Loans",
"description": "19th and 20th Century French Art and Leonard C. Hanna, Jr. Loans. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 22-September 1, 1943).",
"opening_date": "1943-06-22T04:00:00"
},
{
"id": 312095,
"title": "Works of Edgar Degas",
"description": "Works of Edgar Degas. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 5-March 9, 1947).",
"opening_date": "1947-02-05T05:00:00"
},
{
"id": 311898,
"title": "35th Anniversary Exhibition",
"description": "35th Anniversary Exhibition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 20-September 30, 1951).",
"opening_date": "1951-06-20T04:00:00"
},
{
"id": 300842,
"title": "The Dance in Art",
"description": "The Dance in Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (May 20-August 17, 1955).",
"opening_date": "1955-05-20T04:00:00"
},
{
"id": 703013,
"title": "Highlights of the 19th Century",
"description": "Highlights of the 19th Century. Akron Art Museum, Akron, OH (organizer) (March 3-31, 1959).",
"opening_date": "1959-03-03T05:00:00"
},
{
"id": 304520,
"title": "Art and the Stage",
"description": "Art and the Stage. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (May 22-August 16, 1981).",
"opening_date": "1981-05-22T04:00:00"
},
{
"id": 310025,
"title": "Creativity in Art and Science, 1860-1960",
"description": "Creativity in Art and Science, 1860-1960. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 16-November 8, 1987).",
"opening_date": "1987-09-16T04:00:00"
},
{
"id": 311444,
"title": "Object Lessons: Cleveland Creates an Art Museum",
"description": "Object Lessons: Cleveland Creates an Art Museum. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 7-September 8, 1991).",
"opening_date": "1991-06-07T04:00:00"
},
{
"id": 192019,
"title": "Master Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art",
"description": "Master Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 27-October 17, 2000).",
"opening_date": "2000-08-27T00:00:00"
},
{
"id": 224558,
"title": "Time Stands Still: Muybridge and the Instantaneous Photography Movement",
"description": "Time Stands Still: Muybridge and the Instantaneous Photography Movement. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (February 15-May 16, 2004).",
"opening_date": "2004-02-15T00:00:00"
},
{
"id": 184132,
"title": "Masterworks from The Phillips Collection",
"description": "Masterworks from The Phillips Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 20-May 29, 2005).",
"opening_date": "2005-02-20T00:00:00"
},
{
"id": 200460,
"title": "Mary Cassatt and the Feminine Ideal in 19th-Century Paris",
"description": "Mary Cassatt and the Feminine Ideal in 19th-Century Paris. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (October 14, 2012-January 20, 2013).",
"opening_date": "2012-10-04T00:00:00"
},
{
"id": 283693,
"title": "Pure Color: Pastels from the Cleveland Museum of Art",
"description": "Pure Color: Pastels from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 19, 2016-March 19, 2017).",
"opening_date": "2016-11-19T05:00:00"
},
{
"id": 324628,
"title": "Nineteenth-Century French Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art",
"description": "Nineteenth-Century French Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 20-June 11, 2023).",
"opening_date": "2023-01-19T05:00:00"
}
],
"legacy": [
{
"description": "Cleveland Art Loan Exposition. Cleveland School of Art, Kinney & Levan Building, Cleveland (November 25\u2013December 17, 1913).",
"opening_date": "1913-12-17T00:00:00"
},
{
"description": "Inaugural Exhibition. Minneapolis Institute of Arts (January 7\u2013February 7, 1915).",
"opening_date": "1915-02-07T00:00:00"
}
]
},
"provenance": [
{
"description": "Studio of the artist, sold to Durand-Ruel, Paris",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": [],
"date": "1896-1897",
"sortorder": 1
},
{
"description": "(Durand-Ruel, Paris, transferred to Durand-Ruel, New York",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": [],
"date": "1897-1898",
"sortorder": 2
},
{
"description": "(Durand-Ruel, New York, sold to Mr. and Mrs. Jeptha H. Wade, Cleveland, OH)",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "1898-1900",
"sortorder": 3
},
{
"description": "Mr. [1857\u20131926] and Mrs. [1857\u20131917] Jeptha H. Wade II, Cleveland, given to the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": [],
"date": "1900-1916",
"sortorder": 4
},
{
"description": "Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": [],
"date": "1916-",
"sortorder": 5
}
],
"find_spot": null,
"related_works": [],
"former_accession_numbers": [],
"did_you_know": "Degas joined six separate irregularly shaped sheets of paper to make this work, and their connections are faintly visible on its surface.",
"early_education_description": null,
"artlens_description": null,
"description": "Degas depicted the ballet in more than 1,000 paintings, prints, pastels, and sculptures. He preferred private, offstage moments to glamorous curtain calls or artfully constructed compositions. Here, three dancers stretch together in the wings, unaware of the viewer\u2019s presence. Powdery layers of yellow, orange, and pink pastel create a rough surface characteristic of Degas\u2019s late work in the medium. He invented special techniques that allowed him to build layer upon layer of color with varying degrees of opacity and transparency. This pastel\u2019s rich surface and intense, vibrating palette is the result of such innovative methods.",
"external_resources": {
"wikidata": [
"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q60781030"
],
"internet_archive": [
"https://archive.org/details/clevelandart-1916.1043-dancers"
]
},
"citations": [
{
"citation": "Illustrated Catalogue of the Cleveland Art Loan Exposition. Exh. cat. Cleveland: Cleveland School of Art, 1913.",
"page_number": "Mentioned: no. 45C",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "Catalogue of the Inaugural Exhibition. Exh. cat. Minneapolis: Minneapolis Institute of Arts, 1915.",
"page_number": "Mentioned: p. 36, no. 169",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "\"The Wade Collection.\" The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 4, no. 1 (1917): 3-12.",
"page_number": "Mentioned: p. 3",
"url": "http://www.jstor.org/stable/25136053"
},
{
"citation": "\u201cLists of Objects in the Exhibition.\u201d The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 16, no. 9 (1929): 159\u201375.",
"page_number": "Mentioned: p. 167",
"url": "http://www.jstor.org/stable/25137248."
},
{
"citation": "Milliken, William M. \u201cThe Twentieth Anniversary Exhibition of the Cleveland Museum of Art.\u201d Art News 34, no. 37 (June 13, 1936): 7-14.",
"page_number": "Mentioned: p. 14",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Wilenski, R. H. Modern French Painters. New York: Reynal and Hitchcock, 1940",
"page_number": "Mentioned: p. 336",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Lemoisne, Paul Andr\u00e9. Degas et son \u0153uvre. Paris: Brame et de Hauke, 1946.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and reproduced: vol. 3, 726\u201327, no. 1249",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Armitage, Merle. Dance Memoranda. Freeport, NY: Books for Libraries Press, 1946.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 166",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Francis, Henry Sayles. Works by Degas. Exh. Cat. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1947.",
"page_number": "Mentioned: p. 10, 18, no. 49; Reproduced: pl. XLII",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 509",
"url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1958/page/n94"
},
{
"citation": "The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 174",
"url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1966/page/n198"
},
{
"citation": "The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 174",
"url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1969/page/n198"
},
{
"citation": "Henning, Edward B. \u201cSouth of His House, North of His House: Nyack, a Painting by Fairfield Porter.\u201d The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 58, no. 3 (March 1971): 85\u201390.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and reproduced: p. 89, fig. 10",
"url": "http://www.jstor.org/stable/25152366"
},
{
"citation": "The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 214",
"url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1978/page/n234"
},
{
"citation": "Breitman, Ellen. Art and the Stage. Exh. Cat. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1981.",
"page_number": "Mentioned: p. 45-48, no. 25; Reproduced: p. 46",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Henning, Edward B. \u201c\u2018Woman in the Waves\u2019 by Paul Gauguin.\u201d The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 71, no. 8 (October 1984): 280\u2013289.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and reproduced: p. 287-288, fig. 15",
"url": "http://www.jstor.org/stable/25159880"
},
{
"citation": "Henning, Edward B. Creativity in Art and Science, 1860-1960. Exh. Cat. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1987.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and reproduced: p. 100",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "DeGrazia, Diane and Carter E. Foster. Master Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Exh. cat. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2000.",
"page_number": "Mentioned: p. 1; Reproduced: p. 2",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "DeGrazia, Diane. \u201cThe Evolution of a Collection: Drawings in Cleveland.\u201d Master Drawings 38, no. 3 (Fall 2000): 249-60.",
"page_number": "Mentioned: p. 249; Reproduced: p. 251",
"url": "https://www.jstor.org/stable/1554433"
},
{
"citation": "Lemonedes, Heather. \u201cPure Color: A new exhibition celebrates luminous pastels.\u201d Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine 56, no. 6 (November/December 2016): 8-9.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 8; Mentioned: p. 9",
"url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAMM2016-06"
},
{
"citation": "Salsbury, Britany. Nineteenth-Century French Drawings: The Cleveland Museum of Art. Lewes, UK, Cleveland, Ohio: GILES; Cleveland Museum of Art, 2023.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and reproduced: p. 146-153, no. 28c",
"url": ""
}
],
"catalogue_raisonne": "Lemoisne 1249",
"url": "https://clevelandart.org/art/1916.1043",
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],
"creditline": "Gift of Mr. and Mrs. J. H. Wade",
"image_credit": null,
"sketchfab_id": null,
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"gallery_donor_text": null,
"athena_id": 95271,
"creators": [
{
"id": 1759,
"description": "Edgar Degas (French, 1834\u20131917)",
"extent": null,
"qualifier": null,
"role": "artist",
"biography": "Son of a Parisian banker, Edgar Degas enrolled in law school in 1853 following his father's wishes. But he had already shown an interest in art and had also registered to copy at the Louvre. In 1855 he entered the \u00c9cole des Beaux-Arts and became a student of Louis Lamothe (1822-1869), a former pupil of Ingres (q.v.). One year later Degas made the traditional journey to Italy, remaining there for three years. He visited family members in Naples and Florence and attended life classes at the Villa Medici in Rome. A visit to Normandy in 1861 may have introduced him to the racetrack. In Paris he continued to study at the Louvre, where he met Manet (q.v.) in 1862. Apart from his continuous interest in portraiture and history painting, Degas began to pay attention to subjects of modern life. Between 1865 and 1870, he exhibited at the Salon. At the time of the Franco-Prussian War, he enlisted in the artillery, but because of his poor eyesight he served (with Manet) in the infantry. After the war he traveled first to London and, in 1872-73, visited his uncle and brothers who had a cotton business in New Orleans. Degas participated in the first impressionist exhibition of 1874. He continued to exhibit with these artists until 1886 but never completely considered himself a member of the group, preferring to call himself a realist or naturalist. While many of the impressionists painted en plein air, Degas worked with models in his studio and, later in his career, from his imagination. In addition to painting, he experimented often with monotypes, engraving, pastels, sculpture, and photography. He traveled extensively-London, Naples, Spain, Morocco, and Switzerland-but continued to draw his subject matter from modern-day Paris. Other recurring themes would be the female nude and the ballet dancer. After the impressionist exhibition of 1886, Degas no longer participated in group shows. Instead he sold his works to private dealers such as Durand-Ruel and Ambroise Vollard. In the 1890s he began his own art collection, which, besides many works on paper, included paintings by such artists as Ingres, C\u00e9zanne (q.v.), Delacroix (q.v.), Gauguin (q.v.), and van Gogh (q.v.). His own art at the time became characterized by broader strokes of paint, charcoal, and pastel and the use of more vibrant colors, partly because of problems with his vision. His failing eyesight and poor health caused him to abandon his pursuit of art during the last years of his life.",
"name_in_original_language": null,
"birth_year": "1834",
"death_year": "1917",
"use_in_caption": true,
"include_extent": false,
"weight": 1
}
],
"legal_status": "accessioned",
"accession_date": "1916-10-02T00:00:00",
"sortable_date": 1891,
"date_added_to_oa": null,
"date_text": "c. 1896",
"collapse_artists": false,
"on_loan": false,
"recently_acquired": false,
"record_type": "object",
"conservation_statement": null,
"has_conservation_images": false,
"cover_accession_number": null,
"is_nazi_era_provenance": false,
"impression": null,
"alternate_titles": [
"Ballet Girls"
],
"is_highlight": true,
"updated_at": "2026-07-14 11:14:36.085000"
}
}