Beauty in Motion: Edgar Degas’ Ballet Dancers – A Zoom Presentation by Art Historian Anik Waldeck

Beauty in Motion: Edgar Degas’s Ballet Dancers

Let’s go backstage with one of the most celebrated artists of the 19th century!

Edgar Degas’s beautiful ballet dancers have captured the hearts of art enthusiasts the world over and become synonymous with the Impressionist movement. One might expect Degas’s seemingly countless images of this theme to focus primarily on the lovely tutus and graceful arabesques of pretty ballerinas as they flit across the stage. Closer observation, however, reveals that his primary interest lay elsewhere. Instead of repeatedly depicting the glitz and glamour of a full-dress performance, the artist became fascinated with what happened behind the scenes. 

Art Historian Anik Waldeck will pull back the curtain to reveal the world of ballet in 19th-century France, the manner in which Degas depicted its complexities and how he produced these beloved works of art.