Ballerina alla sbarro di edgar degas biography

Ballerinas are to Degas as lilies are to Monet.

And “make us see” is what he does with exquisite aplomb.

He renders the beauty of fleeting movement, of ballerinas in mid-performance, with a luminous quality. But he also captures the human side of ballerinas, in their simplest, most intimate moments—warming up, stretching at the bar, practicing positions, or talking in the dressing room.

At the ballet, Degas found himself.

It satisfied his penchant for classical elegance and put to use his rigorous academic training from the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris—one of the world’s oldest and most prestigious fine art schools.

He frequented the Palais Garnier—the home of the Paris Ballet and Opera, lurking in the wings and foyer hoping to befriend the influential patrons who might gain him access to the private world of ballerinas.

Mimed poetry, dream made visible.

Degas’s paintings of b