Dancers

The picture shows four dancers. The dancer in the right foreground, seen from the back, reaches out wide to grasp her spreading skirt, two at the left lean close together, and one at the back right raises her arm high. Thick lines of green and brown run through the background, setting off the pale yellow and blue-green of the skirts. It is pastel on paper, measuring 66.5 x 103.5 cm.

According to the museum's commentary, Degas valued classical technique throughout his life, admired Ingres deeply, and was an artist for whom line was the life of a picture. In his later years he left many masterpieces in oil and pastel on the subject of dancers.

The commentary explains that in his pastels in particular, the rapid sketching with line at which he excelled made freer and more varied expression possible on the basis of his earlier solid work. In this work, the subtle movements of the dancers waiting for their turn are expressed through sharp, powerful modeling in pastel.