Formal Analysis of Degas

Impressionism is perhaps one of the most fascinating art movements discussed in this series of courses. Artists during this time struggled to compete with new technology such as the camera because of its ability to capture a real, unpredictable moment in time. Thus the birth of impressionism, where art became a moment of modern life captured in a painting; unblended brush strokes are evidence of a fast paced and painterly approach while color was used to enhance a certain mood.  One artist that I have grown to appreciate is Edgar Degas. His painting The Rehearsal on Stage, completed in 1874, uses social commentary to evoke a sense of physical, sexual, and moral tension in depicting modern life.

                Firstly, The Rehearsal on Stage exhibits physical tension by the way that Degas painted the dancers. He has put some of them in strenuous and unnatural poses. For example, the dancer in the center foreground is uncomfortably leaning forward with her legs stretched in front of her. The dancers in the background are on the tips of their toes trying to maintain balance, while the girls on the side look tired and bored. . This painting demonstrates the long and gruesome hours that the young dancers experienced during practice.

                Degas also portrays sexual tension in this painting with his use of imagery. These are young women, dancing in more provocative, revealing dresses.  One important aspect of this painting is the two men sitting in the background on the right side. The men sitting there suggest that they have come to the rehearsal and paid to watch the girls dance. Because of Degas’s impressionistic approach to painting, we cannot make out the detail of the men’s faces; however it is obvious that they are simply there to watch. The men don’t seem to be carrying a conversation as if they are waiting for the rehearsal to end; rather they are relaxed, slumped in their chairs, enjoying the private show. Dancers during this time were typically of the lower class, but the strange thing is that the men watching are wearing suits so they must have been wealthy, not to mention that we are assuming that they paid to be there. In light of this, seeing this painting makes me feel as though it was easier to be taken advantage of, especially being a lower class woman, or perhaps that it was okay for the men to watch because these women were of a lesser rank. This can be interpreted as sexual tension. It almost seems as though the social commentary was showing how exhausted lower class women are of being degraded and simply seen as items of sex, which bring up the question of morality and the moral tension in this scene.      

                One characteristic that makes Degas’s work so interesting is that he was an impressionist, but he sometimes broke away from the style and incorporated more realism. For example, in The Rehearsal on Stage represents impressionism with his use of cropping. The dancer on the left closest to the viewer is cut in half; similar to how a photograph would look. On the other hand, he does not have a fascination with color and light like other impressionist artists. Instead he uses neutral colors and keeps a wide range of values without having one direct light source. Other impressionists painted exactly what was in front of them, which is what made them unique. However, Degas did not attend an actual rehearsal for this painting, but he used models instead. This isn’t a quick representation of life in front of him, however it is contrived. He exhibits a fluid, textured surface of brush strokes while still keeping a flat-like quality in his work.  A couple of elements in this painting in particular are the steepness of the floor and the bass clef in the foreground. In 1853, Japan made itself available in Western trade and diplomacy where art objects and prints became popular in France during the late nineteenth century. Degas was heavily influenced by Japanese wood block prints at this time. His work shares some of the same elements of Japanese wood block prints such as steep receding perspectives, flatness, blocks of color and geometric shapes. In The Rehearsal on Stage, Degas uses outline to shape some of the dancers; for instance the dancer’s legs in the middle ground are outlined and also the dresses of the dancers in the foreground are outlined which produces a flat effect. The bass clefs also reflect the blocks of color seen in the Japanese prints because they are immediately in the foreground and impossible to ignore which also gives the piece a flatness because of the solid dark color.   

                Overall, I love the way Degas incorporated different artistic styles into this painting to achieve a snapshot like scene of modern life in the late nineteenth century.