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Edgar Degas

Group of Dancers (Groupe de danseuses)

c. 1898
Pastel and charcoal on two sheets of paper pieced together and adhered overall to paperboard
64.1 × 50.8 cm (25.2 × 20 in)

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In the collection of Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia — check current display status with the museum.

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FROM THE BARNES FOUNDATION’S CATALOG

Drawing was essential to Degas's artistic practice. Here strong lines of charcoal with minimal additions of pastel define three dancers with overlapping arms and tutus. The radical cropping and clustering of the figures—only one face, in profile, is visible to the viewer—reveals Degas's photographic eye. Indeed, Degas owned a camera by the mid-1890s, but there is no evidence that he used photography in the making of this work.

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