Dancer Turning
c. 1876
Medium
Charcoal, heightened with white chalk, with stumping, on pinkish-gray laid paper with blue fibers (discolored to brownish-gray)
Dimensions
60.7 × 44.8 cm (23 15/16 × 17 11/16 in.)
Classification
charcoal
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
28830
Art Historical Context
Step into the graceful world of Edgar Degas with *Dancer Turning*, a captivating charcoal drawing from around 1876, now housed in the Art Institute of Chicago Prints and Drawings Department. Measuring nearly 24 by 18 inches, this work on pinkish-gray laid paper—subtly textured with blue fibers, now gently discolored—showcases Degas's lifelong obsession with ballet. During the 1870s, as he aligned with the Impressionists yet carved his own realist path, Degas frequented Paris's opera houses, sketching dancers in candid, off-stage moments to capture their raw athleticism and poise. Degas master...
About the Artist
Hilaire Germain Edgar Degas · 1834–1917
Hilaire Germain Edgar Degas, born on July 19, 1834, in Paris to a prosperous banking family, was the eldest of five children. His mother, Célestine Musson, a Creole from New Orleans whose father Germain Musson had roots in Haiti, died when Degas was thirteen, leaving his father Augustin and unmarried uncles to guide him. Educated at the elite Lycée Louis-le-Grand, where he earned a baccalauréat in...