Dancers at the Bar

Dancers at the Bar by Edgar Degas

By Mason Petancosta

Dancers at the Bar is an Impressionism art piece by Edgar Degas. It was created in the year 1900, and is made of charcoal and pastel on tracing paper. At a superficial level it is literally two ballet dancers that appear to be stretching on a bar. However, much more can be observed about the piece with closer inspection.

First off, one odd thing about this painting is that it includes a large amount of dark green, and a little black. This is weird because those colors are earth colors and normally Impressionism has very little or no dark colors, but Degas is known for straying somewhat from the Impressionists. The two dancers both appear to be very different and have varying personalities. The woman to the right is hunched over and she is looking at her elevated foot. Her hunched position suggests that she is shy, inward, and even a little cowardly. This is quite opposite from the other woman. The woman to the left has a much more upright and proper posture. This position indicates that she carries herself well, is outgoing, and has a great deal of confidence. An interesting thing about the woman to left is that her hair color is almost the same as the walls. Degas could have done this to symbolize that it is that woman’s studio, or that she is the most talented of the dancers. The most interesting part of this piece is that the two dancers seem to be combined and almost look like one person. Their skirts are intertwined and it looks like one giant skirt. Both of the women have one leg up and one leg on the ground, so their other two legs coming out of the skirt look like they belong to one person. They almost look like one woman with two torsos. A reason that Degas painted the women this way could be to show that they are close friends, and that they are so emotionally connected that he painted them as one. (Edgar Degas Dancers at the Bar)Overall, Degas included a great deal of hidden information about these two women.

The main points of this painting are that the two women are distinctly different, that they seem to be friends, and they appear to be connected to one another. We cannot ask Degas what he meant for everything in his piece to mean or represent, but we can examine his art closely and try to infer what he intended and often times more.

Works Cited

Edgar Degas Dancers at the Bar. (n.d.). Retrieved October 2008, from The Amica Library .

Degas, E. (n.d.). Dancers at the Pole. Retrieved October 2008, from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Edgar_Germain_Hilaire_Degas_072.jpg