Edgar Degas, The School of Dance

Description

The work The Dance School is an image that portrays a moment of the rehearsals behind the scenes. In Degas' paintings, ballerinas are studied and portrayed as they interpret different positions. In the painting, the dancers rest and arrange their tunics and shoes. In the center of the group is the elderly teacher who is waiting to resume the lesson. The framing of the painting is inspired by photographic ones. Photography was, in fact, on the rise in Paris as well as all over the world and Degas was inspired by photographic cuts. The figures are then painted by cutting some of their parts with the edges of the pictorial plane.