Degas at the Opéra, Degas at the Opéra, Four Dancers, c. 1899

JULIE KENT: The look and feel of Degas’ positions, //what the dancers are focused on, //looks to me completely accurate. I mean I see //these sort of motifs of //looking at your shoes and adjusting your costume and just resting, thinking, to be completely natural and real. KIMBERLY JONES: The Four Dancers is one of, if not the last great ballet picture that Degas produced. After this point, Degas will turn his attention increasingly towards pastel and charcoal drawing and sculpture; other media, rather than paintings. But here, we see that last great burst of energy. KAYWIN FELDMAN: When a friend visited in 1899, Degas announced, “I am going to show you some orgies of color that I am doing just now.” It was about this time that Degas created this oil painting, a definite orgy of color. By now, Degas had begun to lose his sight. He continued to paint, but his brushstrokes become broader and his colors brighter. KIMBERLY JONES: The color palette is vibrant and somewhat lurid, filled with oranges and greens and bright yellows. We see the wonderful shades of green reflected in the dancers’ backs and arms, presumably from the gaslight of the foot lamps, as it is coloring their bodies. KAYWIN FELDMAN: In this cluster of dancers at the far left, one figure gazes up toward her outstretched arm, while three others adjust the shoulder of their costume as they rotate in different directions. We may be looking at four ballerinas, or perhaps one dancer as she pirouettes in Degas’s mind. Opposite the dancers, on the far right, we see a backdrop of haystacks, which may be a nod to fellow impressionist Claude Monet. KIMBERLY JONES: But everything about this is meant to be something outside of reality. And so Degas embraces that notion, that we are not in the real world, but in a world beyond; the world of the stage, the world of the spectacle; and ramps that up to create this wonderful, dreamy image of dancers as they prepare to go onstage and perform before the audience.