Art Institute of Chicago
Yellow Dancers (In the Wings)
Edgar Degas (French, 1834–1917)LinkedCulture matchlcp-bf4856169bdb
- Date
- 1874–76
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Culture
- France
- Department
- Painting and Sculpture of Europe
- Institution
- Art Institute of Chicago
- Object ID
- 18951
From the Art Institute of Chicago record
Edgar Degas first painted dancers as an independent subject in 1871. He was to devote almost half his output as an artist to this subject, observing countless performances and rehearsals at the Paris Opéra. Here he placed the viewer in the wings, as if among the elite Opéra subscribers who roamed and socialized backstage. Dance subjects allowed Degas to contemporize his lifelong interest in showing the human body in complex movement, shifting the scene from ancient history to modern Paris. He finished and signed the present canvas in time for the second Impressionist exhibition, in April 1876.
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Provenance & credit
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- Credit line
- Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Gordon Palmer, Mrs. Bertha P. Thorne, Mr. and Mrs. Arthur M. Wood, and Mrs. Rose M. Palmer
- Provenance
- Shipped by the artist to the art dealer, Charles W. Deschamps, London, around May 15, 1876 [see letter of May 15, 1876 from Degas to Deschamps, Collection Frits Lugt, Institut Néerlandais, Paris, published in Reff 1968]. James Staats Forbes, London; sold to Goupil et Cie, Paris on July 25, 1891 [see Goupil-Boussod & Valadon Successeurs Ledgers, cited in John Rewald 1973]; sold to Potter Palmer (died 1902), Chicago on September 18, 1891 [see Goupil Ledgers citied above]; by descent in the Palmer family; given to the Art Institute, 1963.
Linked open data
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- Object type
- AAT300033618
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