Collection Harry Payne Bingham, New York

Compared to Degas’ earlier treatment of the dancing class in the opera in rue Le Peletier, this painting shows how quickly the artist advanced into the world of movement and casual effect which he was to make his own. Larger in size, broader, freer, and lighter in treatment, it is full of many impressions, gathered into a remarkably complex design. Perspective is here cultivated by the slanting floor and by the diagonal line of dancers, starting in the left foreground and continuing back into the farthest corner. The picture space is widened by a mirror catching reflections of other dancers and a window beyond. What intense study has gone into each ballerina! Each is caught in an individual pose and gesture and for the first time the artist has attempted a figure in action. All the bustle and confusion of many movements is caught with an almost camera-like fidelity. Degas cuts off one figure by another, overlapping forms easily and masterfully, but so shrewdly are they fitted together that there is no real confusion. Against all this turning, twisting, and posing stands the rock-like form of Maitîre Jules Perrot, leaning heavily on his stick. Behind, in further contrast, are mothers watching the class, their street clothes furnishing a foil for the light, graceful costumes of the dancers. Here was something new in art, a surprising view of a little known world, composed with the grace and authority of an old master.