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Your galleryYellow Dancers (In the Wings)
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Follow the dancers’ overlapping arms, then compare their yellow skirts with the painted scenery behind them.
Degas offers a view from the wings rather than the auditorium, placing us among dancers preparing beside the stage. He finished and signed this canvas for the second Impressionist exhibition in 1876. Its backstage viewpoint lets small adjustments of clothing and posture take the place of a formal performance.
Oil on canvas · 73.5 × 59.5 cm · Art Institute of Chicago · Impressionism
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Details and source
- Museum title
- Yellow Dancers (In the Wings)
- Artist
- Edgar Degas (French, 1834–1917)
- Date
- 1874–76
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- 73.5 × 59.5 cm (28 15/16 × 23 7/16 in.); Framed: 91.5 × 78.2 × 7 cm (36 × 30 3/4 × 2 3/4 in.)
- Credit line
- Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Gordon Palmer, Mrs. Bertha P. Thorne, Mr. and Mrs. Arthur M. Wood, and Mrs. Rose M. Palmer
- Image license
- CC0 1.0 · Public domain
- Museum record
- Art Institute of Chicago
Galler’s rooms and hanging scale are imagined. The image is the museum’s original digital reproduction.