Description
Edgar Degas – Young Spartans exercising
| Year of creation: | 1860 |
| Original size: | 155 cm x 109.5 cm |
| Painting style: | Impressionism |
| Original technique: | Oil on canvas |
| Located: | The National Gallery, London |
Plutarch wrote of a lawgiver from ancient Sparta who ordered the Spartan maidens to compete in wrestling; in this oil on canvas, a group of boys standing opposite are called to fight.
The painter began to paint the oil on canvas in 1860, but the work of art was never completed, as Degas returned to the painting several times before his death and changed it. Investigations of the oil on the canvas showed that Degas repeatedly changed the position of the youth, their faces and even the number of people in the painting – as a result, the four women in the painting share ten legs.
