Two Dancers in the Wings

1879–80

Edgar Degas

(French, 1834–1917)

Culture

France

Medium

drypoint (crayon électrique)

Measurements

Sheet: 29.6 x 21.6 cm (11 5/8 x 8 1/2 in.); Image: 11.3 x 10.2 cm (4 7/16 x 4 in.)

Credit Line

Dudley P. Allen Fund 2026.52

Catalogue raisonné

Reed and Shapiro 39

You can copy, modify, and distribute this work, all without asking permission. Learn more about CMA's Open Access Initiative.

Location

Not on view

Did You Know?

Edgar Degas began to use carbon rods to create prints after a visit to his friend, industrialist and collector Alexis Rouart, who offered the artist this tool to create a print after he stayed overnight to avoid an impending snowstorm.

Description

Degas began to explore the intaglio printmaking techniques used to create Two Dancers in the Wings as early as the 1850s and saw prints as having an important part to play in the Impressionists’ group exhibitions. This work is the only one he created entirely using crayon électrique--a carbon rod used to incise the surface of a copper plate. Here, he used the diffuse lines created by this technique to portray the anxious stasis of two young ballerinas standing beside a massive, dark curtain, waiting to perform.