The truth behind Degas’s ballet paintings

While most of the Impressionists are renowned for painting landscapes outdoor, Edgar Degas is the Impressionist who preferred to paint in the studio. Ask people about Degas and the response will most likely be ‘the Frenchman who painted ballerinas’. However, life as a ballerina was not always as it seemed, and many of his subjects were not dancers. 

Over half the artworks of Edgar Degas were inspired by ballet, perhaps because he found world stimulated both his taste for classical beauty and his eye for modern realism. But the reality of the life of the ballet dancers goes beyond sheer beauty. In the 19th century, most of the ballet dancers entered the academy as children from working-class or impoverished background. They often joined the ballet to support their families, working grueling, six-day weeks.

In the theatre of the time, there was a luxuriously appointed room located behind the stage. It was a place where the dancers would warm up before performances but it also served as a kind of ‘gentlemen’s club’. The wealthy subscriber to the opera could conduct business, socialise, and meet the ballerinas. These ballet dancers were expected to respond to the attention affectionately, encouraged even by their own mothers to fan the flames of male desire. 

This occurrence was in keeping with Degas’s broader interest in the harsh realities of modern life. Despite his association with the Impressionists, Degas preferred to be called a realist. While he favored scenes of ballet dancers, he also was fascinated with the life of laundresses, milliners, and other members from the lower echelons of Parisian society. Urban subjects cast in harsh, artificial light distinguished his works from the bright, leisurely plein air paintings by artists such as Claude Monet.

Experience more of Degas through RCB Film Club: Degas – Passion for Perfection on Saturday 13 and 27 March 2021 at 2 p.m., RCB Forum, 2nd floor, River City Bangkok.
Tickets are available at www.ticketmelon.com/rivercitybangkok/degas

And visit THE IMPRESSIONISTS multimedia exhibition to experience more of Degas’s unique artistic style and the other Impressionists, running until 18 April 2021 at the Museum of Digital Art on the 2nd floor, River City Bangkok. Tickets are available online at https://www.zipeventapp.com/e/theimpressionists or at The Gallery Shop, 1st floor, River City Bangkok.