Seated Dancer (Dancer at Rest)

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Degas Seated Dancer: Introduction

A dancer leans back with her arms spread wide in Edgar Degas's pastel often called Seated Dancer. Her orange-and-white skirt fills the middle of the sheet, while one leg runs down toward a swirl of blue, green and yellow at the bottom. The pose is open, yet awkwardly braced: she sits rather than performing a step. The Degas digital catalogue names this exact work Dancer at Rest (Danseuse au repos), MS2162, and records it in the State Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg, as GR 155-99. ^{[1] [6]}

The catalogue dates the work to about 1880 and calls it pastel and charcoal on paper mounted on cardboard. Its dimensions are 62 by 47 centimetres. An older online listing uses 1879–80 and slightly larger dimensions, 63.5 by 48.7 centimetres; the current catalogue entry supplies the object line here. The picture is a useful reminder that Degas's dancers are not all shown in a finished stage position. This one occupies the difficult interval between movements, with costume, body and surroundings still in motion on the paper. ^[1][2]

The work at a glance

• ArtistEdgar Degas (1834–1917)
• Catalogue titleDancer at Rest (Danseuse au repos)
• Legacy titleSeated Dancer
• DateCirca 1880
• MediumPastel and charcoal on paper mounted on cardboard
• Dimensions62 × 47 cm
• CollectionState Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg, GR 155-99
• Catalogue cross-referenceMS2162; Lemoisne III-800

Contents

1. Introduction
2. At a Glance
3. A body held between rest and movement
4. Pastel, charcoal and a crowded sheet
5. The documented path to Saint Petersburg

A body held between rest and movement

The dancer's torso tilts back, but the arms reach toward either side of the sheet. Her left arm stretches across the pale costume; the other hand rises near the right edge. A leg descends diagonally out of the broad skirt. These lines keep the figure from settling into a simple, centered triangle. The body seems to fill more space than a seated pose ought to need. Degas makes a rest position look physically active. ^[1]

The orange bodice and skirt attract the eye first. White and grey marks spread through the tulle, softening its edge. Beneath it, charcoal-dark areas give weight to the seat and to folds around the figure. The upper left is blue, a cooler field against the warm costume. At the bottom, patches of green, blue, yellow and red break up any clear account of the floor. The picture asks us to read a dancer and her costume, while leaving parts of the place around her loose and unresolved. ^[1]

The title Dancer at Rest describes an action, but it does not tell us whether she is tired, asleep or waiting for a particular performance. Her head lifts and her face points outward. We can describe the pose and the contrast of colours without assigning a private feeling to her. This matters especially with Degas's ballet subjects, where a picture of a pause can be made to carry more biography than the record supports. The National Gallery of Art's study of Degas's dancers places such pictures within his long engagement with ballet, but it does not identify this sitter or this moment. ^[1][3]

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

Pastel, charcoal and a crowded sheet

Degas combined pastel and charcoal on a paper support later mounted to cardboard, according to the catalogue. Charcoal supplies a dark framework; pastel sets translucent-looking and more opaque strokes against it. The skirt's pale passages are broken by orange lines rather than smoothly filled in. In the blue and green areas, visible directional marks make the background feel worked rather than neutral. The materials help Degas join the dancer to a restless field of colour. ^[1]

The composition is tightly cropped. The arm at right approaches the edge, and the lower leg presses down toward the border. The eye moves from the face to the arms, across the tutu, down the leg and into the vivid cloth or colour patches at the foot of the sheet. This path keeps returning to the body. The picture is not a panoramic view of a stage or rehearsal hall; the catalogue provides no specific setting, and the image itself offers only fragments. ^[1]

Several Degas works are called “seated dancer” in English. One different Hermitage pastel, catalogued as MS1581 and inventory 42160, shows a dancer adjusting her slippers. That title describes a different task and a different composition. The dancer on this page is leaning back with her arms wide. A shoe-adjustment image would be an incorrect replacement even if a larger photograph were easier to obtain. Exact composition and inventory are the controls for this page. ^[1][4]

The documented path to Saint Petersburg

The digital catalogue lists the work in Degas's studio, then with the dealers Etienne Bignou and Georges Bernheim, followed by Otto Krebs at Holzdorf and the Hermitage. It also records its appearance in the Hermitage's 1995–96 exhibition The Hidden Treasures Revealed. Research on the Krebs collection places its Soviet seizure in the history of works displaced during and after the Second World War. The catalogue's short provenance line for this pastel does not establish a precise transfer date or resolve legal questions, so the ownership path should be given carefully rather than smoothed into a routine purchase story. ^[1][5]

The catalogue records a Degas signature at the lower right and cross-references Lemoisne's catalogue as III-800. Such identifiers matter because the familiar title alone is broad. The Hermitage inventory and the MS2162 entry tie the orange, outspread figure to one particular pastel. They also distinguish it from MS1581, which has a different Hermitage inventory and a different action. ^[1][4]

Look back at the dancer's outstretched arms. They suggest extension even while she sits. Degas lets rest and motion share a pose, and his rough passages of colour keep the costume from becoming a fixed decorative shape. That tension—between a pause and a body still arranged for dance—is the picture's strongest visual fact. ^[1]

References

1. Degas digital catalogue, Dancer at Rest (Danseuse au repos), MS2162, exact-object image, catalogue line and provenance. View source
2. WebMuseum, Degas ballet dancers, older date and dimension variant for Hermitage GR 155-99. View source
3. National Gallery of Art, Degas's Dancers, broader context for Degas's ballet subjects. View source
4. Degas digital catalogue, Dancer Adjusting Her Slippers, MS1581, separate Hermitage pastel with inventory 42160. View source
5. Central Registry of Information on Looted Cultural Property, State Hermitage Museum resource, the Otto Krebs collection and Hidden Treasures Revealed in the context of displaced works. View source
6. Edgar Degas, Dancer at Rest (Danseuse au repos), circa 1880, pastel and charcoal on paper mounted on cardboard. State Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg, GR 155-99. Catalogue record. View source

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Dance Class

The Ballet from Robert le Diable

Orchestra Musicians

The Millinery Shop

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Dancers Backstage

A Woman Seated beside a Vase of Flowers

Portrait of James Tissot