Degas and the Ballet

Edgar Degas (18341917) is best known for his luminous studies of dancers. He captured his young female subjects warming up, practising at the bar or mid-performance with a stunning immediacy and accuracy, on canvas, paper and in bronze. Sumptuously illustrated with drawings, pastels, paintings, prints and sculpture, as well as photographs taken by the artist and his contemporaries, and samples of film from the period, this beautiful book follows the development of Degas' ballet imagery. The renowned Degas scholars Richard Kendall and Jill Devonyar examine the artists innovative approach to the subject, from his documentary mode of the early 1870s to the sensuous and expressive manner of his late work. Parallel advances in photography and early film are also explored, placing Degas' lifelong engagement with the figure in movement in a contemporary context.