Impressionist painter, observer of the ballet
An unconventional member of the Impressionists — he cared little for plein air, preferring the indoor theater and rehearsal room. He painted a great many ballet dancers: not only the polished moment on stage, but more often the backstage instants of stretching, tying shoes, resting in exhaustion. His bold compositions often look like a frame snatched at random — a figure cut off by the frame’s edge — catching precisely the offhand, dynamic reality of modern life.
Other painters of ballet mostly painted the loveliest moment under the stage lights. Degas turned his eye backstage instead: a dancer bending to tie her shoe, rubbing an aching ankle, yawning in a corner. He painted not the "performance" but the labor and reality behind it — and this sensitivity to the everyday instant made him one of the coolest observers of modern life.
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