Dancers in the Classroom

c. 1880

In the late 1870s and early 1880s, Degas painted a series of wide horizontal canvases showing ballerinas stretching and resting in a practice room. These works capture the dancers’ grace, concentration, and physical exhaustion. The artist constructed the composition of this painting with great care—the position of the outstretched leg of the girl adjusting her stocking, for example, was changed at least nine times. The expanse of empty floor in the foreground and the plunging perspective are particularly daring.

Medium	oil on canvas
Dimensions	15 1/2 x 34 13/16 in. (39.4 x 88.4 cm) Frame: 23 5/8 x 43 x 2 3/8 in. (60 x 109.2 x 6 cm)
Object Number	1955.562
Acquisition	Acquired by Sterling and Francine Clark before 1955
Status	On View

Image Caption

Hilaire-Germain-Edgar Degas, Dancers in the Classroom, c. 1880, oil on canvas. Clark Art Institute, 1955.562

Select Bibliography

Gordon, Robert and Andrew Forge. Degas. New York: Abrams, 1988. The Smooke Collection. November 5, 2001. New York: Phillips, de Pury & Luxembourg. 2001. Laurie Schneider Adams. Art Across Time. 2nd ed. Boston: McGraw-Hill. 2002. Hofmann, Werner. Degas und sein Jahrhundert. Munich: Verlag C. H. Beck. 2007. Colin B. Bailey, Joseph J. Rishel, and Mark Rosenthal.. Masterpieces of Impressionism and Post-Impressionism: The Annenberg Collection (exh.cat.).. Philadelphia: Philadelphia Museum of Art.. 1989.. Kirk Varnedoe.. A Fine Disregard: What Makes Modern Art Modern.. New York: Abrams.. 1989.. Jean Sutherland Boggs et al.. Degas (1834-1917).. Les grandes expositions, Beaux-Arts, Hors-Série.. 1988.. Milner, Frank. Degas. London: Bison Books, 1990. Meller, Mari Kálmán. "Exercises in and around Degas's Classrooms: Part II." The Burlington Magazine 132, no. 1045 (April 1990): 25365. Manfred Koch-Hillebrecht.. Museen in den U.S.A.. Munich: Hirmer Verlag.. 1992.. Kern, Steven, ed. List of Paintings in the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1992. Kostenevich, Albert. Hidden Treasures Revealed: Impressionist Masterpieces and Other Important French Paintings Preserved by the State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg. Moscow: Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation; St. Petersburg: State Hermitage Museum; New York: in association with H. N. Abrams, 1995. Kendall, Richard. Degas: Beyond Impressionism.(Cat. of exh. National Gallery, London, May 22-Aug. 26, 1996; Art Institute of Chicago, Sept. 28, 1996-Jan. 5, 1997).. London: National Gallery Publications, Art Institute of Chicago, Yale University Press.. 1996. Kern, Steven, et al. The Clark: Selections from the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. New York: Hudson Hills Press, 1996. George Shackelford.. Edgar Degas. Tiny folio.. New York: Abbeville Press.. 1996.. Laurie Schneider Adams.. A History of Western Art, 2nd ed.. London: Calmann & King; Madison: Brown & Benchmark.. 1996.. Sion, Georgia. Degas' Ballet Dancers. London: Ash & Higton/Pavilion, 1992 Anonymous. "Nineteenth-Century Painting and Sculpture." The Magazine Antiques 152 (October 1997): 522–31. Christie's, New York.. Impressionist and 19th-Century Art.. May 5, 1998.. Laurie Schneider Adams.. A History of Western Art, 3rd ed.. New York: McGraw-Hill.. 2001.. Conforti, Michael, et al. The Clark Brothers Collect: Impressionist and Early Modern Paintings. Exhibition catalogue. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute; New Haven: distributed by Yale University Press, 2006. . Exposition Universelle et Internationale de Grand en 1913, Groupe II (Beaux-Arts). Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Exhibit Five: French Paintings of the 19th Century. Exhibition catalogue. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1956. Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Exhibit Ten: Degas. Exhibition catalogue. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1959. Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Edgar Degas (1834-1917). Exhibition catalogue. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1970. Northampton (MA): Smith College Museum of Art. Degas and the Dance. April 5-May 27, 1979. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D. C.. Degas: The Dancers. Nov. 22, 1984-March 10, 1985.. 1984.. Fernandez, Rafael, and Alexandra R. Murphy. Degas in the Clark Collection. Exhibition catalogue. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1987. Grand Palais, Paris.. Degas. Feb. 9-May 16, 1988; National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, June 16-Aug. 28, 1988; Metropolitan Museum, New York, Sept. 27, 1988-Jan. 8, 1989. Kendall, Richard. Degas and the Little Dancer. Exhibition catalogue. New Haven: Yale University Press; Omaha: Joslyn Museum of Art, 1998. Landesmuseum Joanneum Graz. Paul Gauguin. June 9-Oct. 1, 2000. Cat. by Brigitte Béranger. Browse, Lillian. Degas Dancers. New York: Faber & Faber, [1949]. Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. List of Paintings in the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1970. Kirk Varnedoe.. "The Ideology of Time: Degas and Photography.". Art in America.. Summer 1980.:pp. 96-110.. Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. List of Paintings in the Sterling & Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1972. Jean Sutherland Boggs.. "Degas at the Museum: Works in the Philadelphia Museum of Art and John G. Johnson Collection.". vol. 81, no. 346.. Philadelphia Museum of Art Bulletin.. 1985.:pp. 1-48.. Israel Shenker.. "Of Spontaneity I Know Nothing.". Vol. 19, no. 7.. Smithsonian.. October 1988.. . Degas.. Connaissance des Arts, special number.. Feb. 1988.. Lemoisne, Paul-André. Degas et son oeuvre. Les Artistes et leurs oeuvres, études et documents. Paris: P. Brame et C. M. de Hauke, 1946. De Vonyar, Jill, and Richard Kendall. Degas and the Dance. Exh. cat. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 2002. Rubin, Susan Goldman. Degas and the Dance: The Painter and the Petits Rats, Perfecting Their Art. Harry N. Abrams, Inc., Publishers. 2002:pp. 10-11, 30. Scorer, Mischa. Degas and the Dance. New York: Channel Thirteen/WNET Culture and Arts Documentaries, 2004. DVD. Auction Catalogue. Impressionist and Modern Art: Evening Sale. London: Christie's. 02/07/2005. Cowling, Elizabeth, and Richard Kendall. Picasso Looks at Degas. Exhibition catalogue. Williamstown, MA.: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute; Barcelona: Museu Picasso, 2010. Hirshler, Erica E. Sargent's Daughters: The Biography of a Painting. Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, 2009. Lees, Sarah, ed. Nineteenth-Century European Paintings at the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute; New Haven and London: distributed by Yale University Press, 2012. Ganz, James A. and Richard R. Brettell. Great French Paintings from the Clark: Barbizon through Impressionism. Exhibition catalogue. New York: Skira Rizzoli Publications; Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 2011.

Galerie Manzi-Joyant. Exposition d'Art Modern. Exhibition catalogue. Paris: Galerie Manzi-Joyant, 1912.

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Provenance

Jacques Drake del Castillo, Paris (until 1903, sold to Boussod, Valadon, 10 Jan. 1903, as Le foyer de la danse); [Boussod, Valadon, Paris, sold to Glaenzer, 10 Jan. 1903];¹ [Eugene Glaenzer and Co., New York, 1903–6, sold to Boussod, Valadon, 30 June 1906]; [Boussod, Valadon, Paris, sold to Hoentschel, 30 June 1906];² Georges Hoentschel, Paris (from 1906; d. 1915);³ [Galerie Barbazanges, Paris, in 1924, sold to Knoedler, Paris, Feb. 1924]; [Knoedler, Paris, in 1924, sold to Clark, Aug. 1924];4 Robert Sterling Clark (1924–55); Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1955. 1. See Goupil Stock Books, book 15, p. 98, no. 27863. 2. Ibid., p. 164, no. 28847. 3. P.-A. Lemoisne, Degas et son Oeuvre, 1946–49, lists Samuel Courtauld, London, as an owner after Hoentschel (see vol. 1, p. 116, and vol. 3, p. 470, no. 820), but correspondence with the Courtauld Institute confirms that this painting was not in Courtauld’s collection. See letter dated 3 Nov. 1969, from Fiona Morgan to P. O. Troutman, in the Clark’s curatorial file. 4. There is no invoice to Clark from Knoedler. A letter of 19 Dec. 1969 from Knoedler, London, in the Clark’s curatorial file states that the branch in Paris bought this painting from the Galerie Barbazanges in Feb. 1924 and sold it to Clark the following August.