Dinner at the Ball: Degas after Menzel

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Degas Dinner At The Ball: Introduction

A chandelier hangs over a crowded room. Guests sit or stand among tables, mirrors and high arches; patches of white, blue, red and black keep the people moving before our eyes. The picture is Edgar Degas’s Le Bal, also called Le Souper au bal, in the Musée d'Orsay, inventory MNR 226. Orsay dates it about 1879 and calls it a free copy after Adolph Menzel. The important word is copy: this is Degas's response to another artist's ballroom picture, not a documented view of a dinner he attended. ^{[1] [5]}

The English title Dinner at the Ball can obscure that artistic relationship. Menzel's original supper scene was painted in 1878 and shown in Paris in 1879, according to Orsay. Degas could study it there. His compact version keeps the crowded setting and strong play of light while working the image through his own rapid marks. The two paintings are separate works; the crowded version discussed here is Degas’s. ^[1][2]

The work at a glance

• ArtistEdgar Degas (1834–1917), after Adolph Menzel
• Orsay titleLe Bal; alternative Le Souper au bal
• DateAbout 1879, Orsay dating
• MediumOil on wood, Orsay catalogue description
• Dimensions46 × 66.3 cm, Orsay catalogue dimensions
• Current custodyMusée d'Orsay, Paris
• InventoryMNR 226; Degas catalogue MS2583
• SubjectA free copy after Menzel's 1878 ballroom painting

Contents

1. Introduction
2. At a Glance
3. Inside a room of many small events
4. Copying Menzel, making a Degas
5. The MNR inventory and wartime history
6. Looking again

Inside a room of many small events

The chandelier at upper left is the brightest cluster. Beneath it, dark verticals break the room into bays. A broad arch at the back opens into another illuminated space; glints in the mirrors echo the chandeliers and make the interior feel larger than the panel. Degas does not give us a neat line of dancers or diners. The crowd spreads across the width, broken into groups by tables, chairs, clothing and gaps of light. ^[1]

At the lower edge, some figures are close enough to register as bodies but too loosely marked to become individual portraits. Others gather under the arches or disappear into the darker centre. This uneven clarity directs attention through the room. Pale dresses and tablecloths catch the light; black coats and shadows interrupt them. Red and orange passages give warmth to a composition otherwise built from many little contrasts. ^[1]

The view is busy without having a single named protagonist. We can follow the light from the left chandelier to the central arch, then return to the larger bodies and bright table at the front. That route through the image shows how Degas can suggest the sound and movement of a gathering without carefully drawing every face. It remains an interpretation of Menzel's scene, not proof that these particular guests or this precise room were observed by Degas. ^[1][2]

Copying Menzel, making a Degas

Orsay describes the picture as a copie libre, a free copy. Michel Schulman's Degas catalogue places it under MS2583, with the title Le bal ou Le souper au bal, and also identifies Menzel as its source. A free copy can preserve an overall composition while changing scale, handling and emphasis. The borrowed scene gave Degas a problem he often explored: how to make figures, artificial light and crowded space hold together. ^[1][2]

Menzel's original is a distinct 1878 painting held in Berlin. Its complex crowd and chandelier light make the connection clear. Degas's work is much smaller than the original, and its brisk surface makes the figures less individually resolved. This is a comparison of two visible works, rather than a claim about Degas's private intentions. The Orsay date of about 1879 is linked in its record to Menzel's original being exhibited in Paris that year. ^[1][3]

The medium needs careful reporting. Orsay currently lists oil on wood, 46 × 66.3 cm; the Degas digital catalogue says oil on panel, 45.5 × 66.3 cm. A separate French Ministry of Culture recovery record gives oil on canvas and 46 × 60 cm. This page follows Orsay's current object label for its glance table. The differing support and width should be checked against conservation documentation before being treated as resolved physical facts. ^[1][2][4]

Watch: Edgar Degas

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

The MNR inventory and wartime history

The inventory number MNR 226 carries a history beyond the ballroom image. Orsay says the work was found in Germany after the Second World War and entrusted to French national museums in 1950. The French Ministry's Rose-Valland notice records its appearance at the third sale of Degas's studio in 1919, its purchase by Fernand Ochsé, and a later passage through the Coutot collection. It then documents a 1941 sale during the occupation involving Dr Kurt Martin, a transfer to Berlin in 1943, recovery through Wiesbaden and return to France in 1948. ^[1][4]

The Ministry record traces the work's subsequent assignment to national museums and its display or custody in Strasbourg and Paris. It also explicitly classifies the 1933–45 provenance as incomplete. That warning matters more than a tidy narrative: the published chain has gaps, and the record says its entries cannot themselves prove past or present legal ownership. This page reports the documented movements and current museum custody without claiming a final legal-title or restitution outcome. ^[4]

Fernand Ochsé's name is part of that provenance. The Ministry notice states that he died in deportation after taking refuge in Mougins in 1944. The notice does not by itself explain every transaction between his purchase and the later wartime sale, so those steps should not be compressed into an invented account. The recovery history deserves its own exact source and qualified language, rather than being treated as a footnote to an image of a party. ^[4]

Looking again

Begin with the chandelier, then let the patches of light carry your eye toward the rear arch. Return to the nearest guests, where the marks loosen into colour and movement. The room is recognizable, but no sitter needs a name for the picture to work. Degas made this energetic version by looking at Menzel's painting; its beauty and its later history can both be seen clearly when its identity is stated accurately. ^[1][2]

References

1. Musée d'Orsay, Le Bal, MNR 226, current title, copy-after-Menzel classification, date, medium, dimensions, inventory, provenance summary and image credit. View source
2. Michel Schulman, Le bal ou Le souper au bal, MS2583, Degas catalogue identity, technique, dimensions and link to Menzel. View source
3. Staatliche Museen zu Berlin / Google Arts & Culture, Menzel, The Dinner at the Ball, separate 1878 original and composition. View source
4. French Ministry of Culture, Rose-Valland notice MNR00226, recovery history, incomplete-provenance classification and database warning; its medium/dimensions differ from Orsay's current record. View source
5. Edgar Degas, Le Bal (Le Souper au bal), circa 1879, oil on wood (Orsay current catalogue). Musée d'Orsay, Paris, MNR 226; Schulman MS2583. 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