Blue Dancers, Edgar Degas

Hilaire-Germain-Edgar De Gas (Edgar Degas) was a famous French artist, one of the eminent representatives of the impressionist movement. He was born 1834, Paris. Degas started to draw since he was a child even though his father wanted him to be a lawyer.

Degas’ favorite theme of his paintings was dancers. He loved to draw them because it gave him an opportunity to portray different gorgeous fabrics and convey motions. Drawing dancers, Degas shows us the world of grace and beauty but without using excessive sentimentality.

Painting ‘Blue Dancers’ was drawn by Edgar Degas in 1897. The size of this work is 65x65 cm. When artist drew this picture he was 63 and his vision was weak. So he used big color spots for drawing this picture. Thanks to the use of the pastel techniques, in this work Degas manages to achieve the amazing richness of texture and color combinations.

As the most impressionist pictures, this work looks like a photo because of the incompleteness of figures. There are four dancers in blue dresses in this painting. We look at dancers from above. This view grabs our attention to their occupation, how they are preparing for their performance. Skillfully transmitted motion creates a filing of dance.