== Interpretation and themes ==
== Interpretation and themes ==
Scholars have often interpreted the work in relation to the social and historical context of late nineteenth-century Paris, treating it as consistent with Degas’s commitment to documenting modern life.<ref name=”:3″ />{{Reference page|page=187}} Eunice Lipton suggests that Degas’s images of dancers resonate with contemporary issues of class, sex, and work.<ref name=”:2″ />”{{Reference page|page=97|pages=}}” According to Lipton, Degas’s depiction of intimate moments like stretching, practicing, and resting made public what was intensely private. Degas, Lipton suggests, was able to bring his middle class audience into spaces they could not view themselves, “titillating his bourgeois audience.”<ref name=”:2″ />”{{Reference page|page=99|pages=}}” Carol Armstrong notes that Degas counterbalances the depiction of dancers as a desirable object of eroticism with their portrayal as a realistic subject of social documentation.<ref name=”:4″ />”{{Reference page|page=53|pages=}}” Notably, this work features a male musician. In Degas’s later works he neglected to include males as a rejection of “sexual confrontation” and as a step towards painting “gender-specific subjects” <ref name=”:3″ />{{Reference page|page=193}}
Scholars have often interpreted the work in relation to the social and historical context of late nineteenth-century Paris, treating it as consistent with Degas’s commitment to documenting modern life.<ref name=”:3″ />{{Reference page|page=187}} Eunice Lipton suggests that Degas’s images of dancers resonate with contemporary issues of class, sex, and work.<ref name=”:2″ />”{{Reference page|page=97|pages=}}” According to Lipton, Degas’s depiction of intimate moments like stretching, practicing, and resting made public what was intensely private. Degas, Lipton suggests, was able to bring his middle class audience into spaces they could not view themselves, “titillating his bourgeois audience.”<ref name=”:2″ />”{{Reference page|page=99|pages=}}” Carol Armstrong notes that Degas counterbalances the depiction of dancers as a desirable object of eroticism with their portrayal as a realistic subject of social documentation.<ref name=”:4″ />”{{Reference page|page=53|pages=}}”
a male musician. In Degas’s later works he neglected to include males as a rejection of “sexual confrontation” and as a step towards painting “gender-specific subjects”<ref name=”:3″ />{{Reference page|page=193}}
==See also==
==See also==
Painting by Edgar Degas
The Dancing Class is an oil painting on wood executed around 1871 by the French artist Edgar Degas. The painting depicts a dancing class at the Paris Opéra.[1] The dancer in the center is Joséphine Gaujelin (or Gozelin).[2] It is one of Degas’s earliest classroom scenes,[3]: 135  and it is considered foundational to the development of his ballet series.[4]: 208  The work is known by various titles, including The Dancing Class, [3]: 135  Dance Class, [5]: 187  and Rehearsal Room,[4]: 207  and it is variously dated to 1871,[5]: 187 1872, [6]: 86  or 1871–1872.[3]: 135 
Background and creation
The Dancing Class is one of Degas’s initial attempts at depicting the rehearsal space at a time when he remained relatively unfamiliar with the environment.[3]: 135  To make the picture, Degas relied on preparatory studies rather than creating the work in the moment. The unfamiliar presence of Degas in the practice room may have led to the dancers to appear stiff and self-conscious. This early stiffness in The Dancing Class is often contrasted with the more relaxed and fluid forms of the dancers in his future, more intimate works.[3]: 135 
Composition and style
The Dancing Class has been seen as a template for Degas’s later classroom scenes. It is the first work in the series to introduce several motifs that would become central to his ballet paintings, including the barre, the reflective mirrors, and the bare floorboards.[4]: 208  Mari Kálmán Meller notes that the picture shares with the later ballet scenes a “highly-articulated architectural setting.”[4]: 208  Degas frequently used architectural structures and careful placement of figures to control the viewers gaze and impression a scene.[5]: 189–190  Scholars have attributed the spatial arrangement and composition of this scene to the influence of the Spanish master Velázquez.[4]: 208 
Critical reception
Critics offered a mix of responses to The Dancing Class when it was first exhibited in 1874. The critic Marc de Montifaud described the work as “a fine, profound study from which emerges that which one would never encounter in the work of certain genre painters who would blush to put undraped figures in a canvas of only a few inches’ in size: the study of woman in all her opulent nudity, of her elegant or thin anatomical lines.”[7]: 52  Emphasizing the erotic character of the work, Montifaud related the figures to the act of “seduction.”[7]: 52  Other critics saw the work as more incoherent than erotic, emphasizing the angular and supposedly disjointed appearance of the figures.[7]: 53 
Interpretation and themes
Scholars have often interpreted the work in relation to the social and historical context of late nineteenth-century Paris, treating it as consistent with Degas’s commitment to documenting modern life.[5]: 187  Eunice Lipton suggests that Degas’s images of dancers resonate with contemporary issues of class, sex, and work.[6]: 97  According to Lipton, Degas’s depiction of intimate moments like stretching, practicing, and resting made public what was intensely private. Degas, Lipton suggests, was able to bring his middle class audience into spaces they could not view themselves, “titillating his bourgeois audience.”[6]: 99  Carol Armstrong notes that Degas counterbalances the depiction of dancers as a desirable object of eroticism with their portrayal as a realistic subject of social documentation.[7]: 53 
Scholars have also observed that the picture is notable for including a male musician. In Degas’s later works he neglected to include males as a rejection of “sexual confrontation” and as a step towards painting “gender-specific subjects.”[5]: 193 
See also
References
- ^ “The Dancing Class”. Metropolitan Museum. Retrieved 5 December 2021.
- ^ Galitz, Kathryn Calley; Miller, Asher Ethan; Rabinow, Rebecca A.; Rewald, Sabine; Stein, Susan Alyson; Tinterow, Gary (2007). Masterpieces of European Painting, 1800–1920, in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Metropolitan Museum of Art. p. 112. ISBN 978-1-58839-240-4.
- ^ a b c d e DeVonyar, Jill; Kendall, Richard (2002). Degas and the Dance. New York: Harry N. Abrams, in association with the American Federation of Arts. pp. 60, 135–137, fig 143.
- ^ a b c d e f Meller, Mari Kálmán. “Exercises in and Around Degas’s Classrooms: Part I.”“. The Burlington Magazine. 130 (1020): 198–215 – via JSTOR.
- ^ a b c d e Kendall, Richard; Pollock, Griselda (1992). “Signs and Non-Signs: Degas’ Changing Strategies of Representation.”. Dealing with Degas: Representations of Women and the Politics of Vision. New York, NY: Universe. pp. 186–87, 189–91, 193, fig. 42.
- ^ a b c Lipton, Eunice (1987). Looking into Degas : Uneasy Images of Women and Modern Life. Berkeley: University of California Press. pp. 86, 97, 99–100, 207, n.12, fig. 53.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: publisher location (link) - ^ a b c d Armstrong, Carol (1991). Odd Man out : Readings of the Work and Reputation of Edgar Degas. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. pp. 9, 50, 52–53, fig. 1.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: publisher location (link)
External links
- Impressionism: a centenary exhibition, an exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art (fully available online as PDF), which contains material on The Dancing Class (p. 94-98)
