Dancers in Green: Three Figures, One Rising Gesture

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Degas Dancers In Green: Introduction

Three dancers lift their arms against a mottled green background. The figure at left is turned away, her long hair falling over her costume. The middle dancer rises on a pointed foot, her face in profile; the dancer at right reaches up with one arm and seems to lean into the same motion. This composition identifies Edgar Degas's Green Dancers (Danseuses vertes), Schulman MS469 / Lemoisne II-473. The specialist catalogue dates the pastel to 1878, records pastel on paper, measures it at 72 × 39 cm, and lists its current location as a private collection. ^{[1] [4]}

The title is easy to confuse with other Degas pictures: the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum's Swaying Dancer (Dancer in Green) has a single prominent green-costumed performer, while the Guggenheim's Dancers in Green and Yellow belongs to a much later group. This page is about the three tall, pale-costumed dancers before a yellow-green ground, identified by its exact image and catalogue number. ^[1][2][3]

The work at a glance

• ArtistEdgar Degas (1834–1917)
• Catalogue titleGreen Dancers / Danseuses vertes
• Date1878
• Medium and supportPastel on paper
• Dimensions72 × 39 cm
• Current locationPrivate collection in the specialist catalogue
• Catalogue referencesSchulman MS469; Lemoisne II-473

Contents

1. Introduction
2. At a Glance
3. Repetition without a single step
4. Colour across the background
5. The recorded history
6. Looking again

Repetition without a single step

All three dancers reach upward, but each does so differently. The left figure is mostly seen from the back, one arm curving at the top of the sheet. The middle figure presents a profile and a lifted arm that opens above her head. The right figure tilts inward with one raised arm. Their feet also vary: the middle dancer balances on the tip of a shoe, while the right figure's extended foot anchors the lower part of the composition. Repeated gestures create a rhythm without proving that the three are performing one named sequence. ^[1]

Long hair is one of the picture's most striking features. Warm red-brown falls over the backs of the left and middle figures; a darker mass trails behind the dancer at right. Its downward pull counters the arms reaching up. Degas uses those vertical strands almost like another set of lines within the bodies' movement. They help distinguish three figures whose pale costumes overlap. ^[1]

The dancers' skirts are translucent greenish whites rather than solid blocks. Light strokes blend costume, legs and background. Their bodices are lighter still, almost disappearing into the paper in places. The right dancer's red mouth and the middle dancer's darker face stand out among those pale tones. Pastel lets Degas keep the drawn marks visible, so the contours can feel both present and provisional. ^[1]

Colour across the background

The background has no clearly drawn wall, tree or curtain. Yellow, olive, blue and brown marks gather densely above the dancers, with looser purplish-brown floor colour below. The title's “green” belongs as much to that setting as to the tutus. We might read the upper area as stage scenery, but the catalogue does not identify a particular set or theatre. The picture's secure subject is the three costumed dancers and their gestures. ^[1]

The narrow sheet is important. Its dimensions, 72 × 39 cm, produce a tall field in which raised hands nearly reach the top. The figures occupy most of its width. There is little margin at either side and almost no empty stage behind them. This compression makes their different poses seem to share one movement even though the arms, heads and feet do not align. ^[1]

The low viewpoint of the costumes and the high reach of the arms pull the viewer through the full length of the paper. We first meet pointed shoes and the shaded floor, then skirts and torsos, and finally hands against the dense upper colours. That upward reading is a compositional effect, not proof of the choreography Degas had in mind. ^[1]

Watch: Edgar Degas

Explore his paintings, drawings and sculpture in three short videos.

Degas, The Dance Class

Smarthistory

Look closely at Degas’s off-duty dancers and his unusual view into the rehearsal room.

Watch on YouTube

▶01 · PaintingThe Dance ClassSmarthistory▶02 · DrawingDrawing movementThe Met▶03 · SculptureConserving DegasThe Met

The recorded history

The specialist catalogue traces the pastel from Degas's studio to Robert de Bonnières in Paris and then Joseph Durand-Ruel. It later records a private collection in Chicago and a Christie's London sale on 2 December 1996, lot 13, followed by a private collection. This is the extent of the present-location information supplied by the inspected record; the current owner's identity is not public there. ^[1]

The work was shown at London's Grafton Galleries in 1905 and in Paris in 1924 and 1960. The catalogue also lists later appearances in Manchester and Cambridge, Detroit and Philadelphia, and Wuppertal. Its Lemoisne entry, II-473, and the long exhibition trail distinguish it from pictures with similar colour-based titles. ^[1]

The catalogue records a signature at the lower left. That mark offers another way to distinguish this pastel from Degas's other dancers in green. ^[1]

Looking again

Compare the three hands at the top of the sheet, then look down to the different positions of the feet. Notice how the red-brown hair moves opposite to the pale arms. Degas binds the dancers with colour and repetition while allowing each body its own pose. ^[1]

References

1. Michel Schulman, digital Degas catalogue raisonné, Green Dancers / Danseuses vertes, MS469, exact image, 1878 date, pastel on paper, 72 × 39 cm, location, Lemoisne II-473, history and rights notice; checked 27 September 2026. View source
2. Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Swaying Dancer (Dancer in Green), separate object; checked 27 September 2026. View source
3. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Dancers in Green and Yellow, separate object; checked 27 September 2026. View source
4. Edgar Degas, Green Dancers / Danseuses vertes, 1878, pastel on paper. Private collection, Schulman MS469; Lemoisne II-473. Collection record. View source

Related DEGAS Paintings

Dance Class

The Ballet from Robert le Diable

Orchestra Musicians

The Millinery Shop

On the Racecourse

Dancers Backstage

A Woman Seated beside a Vase of Flowers

Portrait of James Tissot