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Two fair-skinned ballet dancers in tutus enter on stage from the right.

The dancers are dramatically lit from underneath by stage lighting. The dancer in front wears a garland of red flowers around the waist and in hair, her arm is straight out form her waist while her right arm is bent with hand to neck. The dancer behind her poses on one pointed toe and holds a small bouquet of red flowers in her right hand with arms upraised. There’s the suggestion of a third dancer’s elbow and a man in top hat behind her on the right. The background is loose marks of golds and green.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
1943.812
People
Hilaire-Germain-Edgar Degas, French (Paris, France 1834 - 1917 Paris, France)
Title
Two Dancers Entering the Stage
Classification
Drawings
Work Type
drawing
Date
c. 1877-1878
Culture
French
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/297965

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Pastel over monotype in black ink on white modern laid paper, discolored to tan
Technique
Monotype
Dimensions
38.1 x 35 cm (15 x 13 3/4 in.)
Inscriptions and Marks
  • Signed: l.l. in yellow chalk: Degas
  • watermark: D & C BLAUW

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
Possibly Ambroise Vollard, Paris; Bernheim Jeune, Paris, by 1918; purchased from them by César Mange de Hauke, Paris; Major (Percy Moore?) Turner, London, acquired from him through Martin Birnbaum by Grenville L. Winthrop, July 4, 1928 (£2,750); his bequest to the Fogg Art Museum. 1943.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Bequest of Grenville L. Winthrop
Accession Year
1943
Object Number
1943.812
Division
European and American Art
Contact
am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu
Permissions

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Publication History

  • Degas: Quatre-vingt-dix-huit reproductions signées par Degas, Galerie A. Vollard (Paris, 1914), pl. 50
  • Paul Lafond, Degas, Henri Floury (Paris, France, 1918 - 1919), repr. vol. 1, p. 42
  • Ambroise Vollard, Ninety-eight Reproductions signed by Degas, Bernheim-Jeune (Paris, France, 1918), repr. between pls. 33 and 34
  • Galerie Georges Petit, Exposition Degas au profit de la ligue Franco-Anglo-Américaine contre le cancer, exh. cat., G. Petit (Paris, France, 1924), no. 129
  • Paul André Lemoisne, Degas et son Oeuvre, Paul Brame and Cesar M. de Hauke (Paris, France, 1946-1949), vol. II (1946), pp. 246-47, no. 448, fig. 448
  • Lillian Browse, Degas Dancers, The Studio Publications Incorporated (New York, NY, 1949), no. 50
  • Eugenia Parry Janis, "The Role of the Monotype in the Working Method of Degas - I", The Burlington Magazine (1967), CIX, p. 27, fig. 43
  • Eugenia Parry Janis, "The Role of the Monotype in the Working Method of Degas - II", The Burlington Magazine (1967), CIX, p. 72
  • Jean Sutherland Boggs, "Degas Monotypes at the Fogg", The Burlington Magazine, The Burlington Magazine Publications, Ltd. (London, July 1968), vol. 110, no. 784, pp.429-430, p. 429
  • Eugenia Parry Janis, Degas Monotypes: essay, catalogue & checklist, exh. cat., Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, MA, 1968), no. 2
  • Dorothy W. Gillerman, ed., Grenville L. Winthrop: Retrospective for a Collector, exh. cat., Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, 1969), cat. no. 118, repr.
  • Pia Desantis, "Study of the Five Degas Pastels in the Fogg Art Museum" (thesis (certificate in conservation), Straus Center for Conservation and Technical Studies, July 1985), Unpublished, pp. 1-94 passim
  • Shelley Fletcher and Pia Desantis, "Degas: the search for his technique continues", The Burlington Magazine (April 1989), vol. 131, fig. 3
  • Jean Sutherland Boggs and Anne Maheux, Degas Pastels, George Braziller (New York, NY, 1992), pp. 50-51
  • Kurt Wisneski, Monotype / Monoprint: History and Techniques, Bullbrier Press (Ithaca, NY, 1995), fig. 17 (color), p. 40
  • Edward Saywell, "Guide to Drawing Terms and Techniques", Harvard University Art Museums Bulletin, Harvard University Art Museums (Cambridge, MA, 1998), vol. VI, no. 2, pp. 30-39, p. 35 under "Pastel"
  • Vincent Pomarède, "La Collection Winthrop: A la recherche de la beauté pure", L'Estampille/L'Objet d'art (April 2003), no. 379, pp. 34-45, p. 44
  • Stephan Wolohojian, ed., A Private Passion: 19th-Century Paintings and Drawings from the Grenville L. Winthrop Collection, Harvard University, exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Yale University Press (U.S.) (New York, 2003), cat. no. 25, repr. (color)
  • Christopher Riopelle, Harvard's Winthrop Collection: Nineteenth-Century Paintings and Drawings from the Grenville L. Winthrop Collection, exh. cat., National Gallery Company Limited (London, 2003), p. 38, cat. 25, ill.
  • Stephan Wolohojian, Ingres, Burne-Jones, Whistler, Renoir... La Collection Grenville L. Winthrop, exh. cat., Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon and Réunion des Musées Nationaux (Paris, France, 2003), no. 25, repr.
  • "Degas at Harvard", Journal of the Print World (summer 2005), vol. 28, no. 3, p. 26, repr. p. 26
  • Kate Ledogar, "'Degas at Harvard,' at the Sackler", The Weekly Dig (October 26 2005), p. 50, p. 50, ill.
  • Holland Cotter, "Degas, Director: An Easel Becomes a Stage", The New York Times (August 5 2005), pp. B25, B27, p. B27; repr. p. B25
  • Cate McQuaid, "Degas, Intimately", The Boston Globe (August 12, 2005), Weekend section, repr.
  • Gene Wolfe, "Degas's American Dawn", Museums Boston (spring 2005-summer 2005), vol. 9, no. 1, p. 59, repr. p. 59
  • Bob Jackman, "Shades of Degas", The Patriot Ledger (August 6 2005-August 7 2005), pp. 39-40, repr. p. 40
  • "Study at Harvard", Where (August 2005), p. 32, repr. p. 32
  • Holland Cotter, "The Week Ahead: Art", The New York Times (July 31 2005), p. 27, repr. p. 27
  • Christine Temin, "Unveiling rarely seen works, Harvard widens the view of Degas", The Boston Globe (June 5 2005), p. N8, ill. p. N8
  • Marjorie B. Cohn and Jean Sutherland Boggs, Degas at Harvard, exh. cat., Harvard University Art Museums/Yale University Press (Cambridge and New Haven, 2005), cat. no. 29, fig. 20 (color), detail repr. pp. 10-11 (color)
  • Greg Stone, Artful Business: 50 Lessons from Creative Geniuses (Boston, 2016), p. 54, ill. (color)
  • Ewa Lajer-Burcharth and Elizabeth M. Rudy, ed., Drawing: The Invention of a Modern Medium, exh. cat., Harvard Art Museums (Cambridge, 2017), p. 188, repr. p. 187 as fig. 3

Exhibition History

  • Exposition Degas au profit de la ligue Franco-Anglo-Américaine contre le cancer, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, 04/12/1924 - 05/02/1924
  • Degas Monotypes, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 04/25/1968 - 06/14/1968
  • Grenville L. Winthrop: Retrospective for a Collector, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 01/23/1969 - 03/31/1969
  • A Private Passion: 19th-Century Paintings and Drawings from the Grenville L. Winthrop Collection, Harvard University, Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon, Lyon, 03/15/2003 - 05/26/2003; National Gallery, London, 06/25/2003 - 09/14/2003; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 10/23/2003 - 01/25/2004
  • Degas at Harvard, Harvard University Art Museums, Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Cambridge, 08/01/2005 - 11/27/2005

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of European and American Art at am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu