Description
Two Dancers shows two dancers in green-turquoise skirts standing close together. The one on the left has raised an arm over her head and holds an opened orange fan in the other hand; the one on the right has turned towards her with a hand on her hip. The background is not a room but a curtain of the same green, out of which the figures barely step, and a few horizontal strokes below suggest the floor. The orange fan is the only warm colour in the whole scene. The original is a pastel on paper and is held by the Albertina in Vienna under the reference DL300. Ours is an oil painting, recreated from the pastel. It is made by hand in eight sizes from 30 x 40 to 120 x 160 cm, or to your own measurement, and you receive a photograph of the finished work for approval before it ships.
| Title: | Two Dancers |
| Other titles: | Deux danseuses, Zwei Tänzerinnen |
| Painter: | Edgar Degas (1834–1917) |
| Year: | circa 1905 |
| Size of the original: | not given in the record |
| Technique of the original: | pastel, paper |
| Style: | impressionism |
| Where it is held: | Albertina, Vienna (reference DL300) |
| Our version: | hand-painted in oil on linen, 8 sizes from 30 x 40 cm to 120 x 160 cm, custom size on request |
Two Dancers – Edgar Degas
Who is in the scene?
Two dancers and nobody else; the record does not name them. The one on the left stands a little further back, her right arm raised over her head, holding the opened fan in front of her chest with the left. Her face is barely indicated, her hair reddish brown and gathered in a low knot. The one on the right stands in the foreground, in profile towards the first, one hand on her hip and the other stretched towards the fan. Both wear the same green-turquoise skirt with a narrow sleeveless bodice. Neither is dancing and neither looks at us; they stand and talk, or wait.
What is on the canvas?
Almost everything is green. Skirts, background and floor are made of the same turquoise green, laid on in separate strokes of pastel, one over another, so that the surface is not a smooth field but a grainy fabric. Among the green, tiny orange and yellow points glow everywhere, giving the whole its warmth without changing its colour. The background is not a room: it has no wall and no corner, only vertical strokes out of which the figures step. Below, a few horizontal strokes suggest the floor. The one real object in the scene is the opened fan, orange with red rays. Lower right, the signature in blue-green.
Why does this scene matter?
Because it is a late work and you can see that in every centimetre. In his last years Degas saw badly and worked in pastel, in broad strokes, without drawing the faces and without detail. This scene is no longer an observation of the practice room but a memory of it: two figures, one colour and one gesture. The second reason is the fan. In a scene where everything is one colour, the orange fan is the one thing the eye finds at once, and everything else arranges itself around it.
What does the scene mean?
Colour as the real subject. Impressionism in the late Degas had grown into something else: the scene no longer describes a space but works as a field of colour out of which two bodies barely separate. An impressionist painting of this kind stands closer to twentieth-century painting than to the scenes of the 1870s. As wall art it is exceptionally decorative and strong in colour. Choose a large painting here and the green takes over the room, which is worth thinking about before you decide.
The subject among Degas’s works
The late dancers form a group of their own in Degas. Blue Dancers is from the same years and likewise built from a single colour, Four Ballerinas on Stage shows the same late manner on the stage, and The Dance Class is early and shows how exact Degas was thirty years before. A related late pair of dancers in pastel is described in the Degas catalogue raisonné as MS 2372, and the fan motif in Dancers with a Fan, MS 188, in the Saint Louis Art Museum.
How is our hand-painted version made?
With a brush and oil paint, not a printer. There is a difference here that has to be said straight out: the original is not an oil painting but a pastel on paper, and our version is oil on canvas, recreated from the pastel. Pastel sits dry and grainy, oil sits smooth; so we do not imitate the grain with a smooth field but with several thin layers of different greens, partly allowed to show through one another. The orange and yellow points go on singly and only at the end, because they are what holds the scene up. The fan comes last. Every reproduction is painted afresh, and no two are quite alike, because a hand does not repeat the same stroke twice; each hand-painted copy is therefore its own. For this work we have no photographs of our finished canvases, so none are shown here and none are described. You receive the photograph of your own canvas before it ships.
Which size for which wall?
If you do not know which: 60 x 80 cm. On this work we have to be honest: the record gives no dimensions for the original, so we cannot say which of our sizes is nearest to it in area, and we do not claim to. The proportion we can give: in the museum’s photograph the original is a little wider than any size we make, and the closest is 40 x 50 cm. The 30 x 40 and 40 x 50 cm belong in a narrow space or on a shelf. The 50 x 70 and 60 x 80 cm are the usual choice above a chest of drawers, and there the green has room enough to live. The 70 x 90 and 80 x 110 cm want a broader wall. At 100 x 130 and 120 x 160 cm the effect is very strong, because the green takes over the room; at those sizes reckon with the colour of your walls. Measure the size you choose on the wall first with a paper cut-out. No size is kept in stock as a finished piece: every copy is painted to order and stays a single piece.
Custom size, stretcher and frame
If none of the eight sizes fits, or if you want the proportion of the original, we paint to your measurement and keep the proportions of the scene as we do, so that the fan stays at the same point and the figures do not become too narrow; this is our work painted to order. Every canvas painting ships stretched on a wooden stretcher, ready to hang. For the frame, use our 3D app: it shows every moulding we carry on this subject, so you can compare gold, silver, black, white and natural wood — it is for choosing a frame and nothing else. If you want to see how the work looks on your own wall, we have a separate service for that, placement in the room.
Delivery and guarantee
Every piece is painted to order in our workshop in Slovenia, so allow 15-45 days depending on the size chosen; at the largest sizes the time is usually at the upper end. It travels stretched and protected for transport, framed if you chose a frame, to sixteen countries in the European Union, with no customs. Before it ships you receive a photograph of the finished work for approval, and our returns policy applies to every order. The painter’s full offer is in the Edgar Degas gallery, and his life is described in our article about Edgar Degas.
Frequently asked questions
What painting is this?
It is Degas’s late pastel of two dancers, about 1905, held by the Albertina in Vienna under the reference DL300.
Is the original an oil painting?
No. The original is a pastel on paper. Ours is painted in oil on linen, recreated from the pastel, and we say so plainly.
Why is no size given for the original?
Because the record does not give one. Where a figure is missing we do not invent it and we do not copy it from elsewhere.
What is the dancer holding?
An opened fan. It is orange, and the only warm colour in the whole scene.
Why is everything green?
Because in his late years Degas worked largely within a single family of colours. Skirts, background and floor are the same green, with orange and yellow points scattered through it.
Where is the original?
In the Albertina in Vienna, under the reference DL300.
Is this a late work?
Yes, about 1905, when the painter was a little over seventy and his sight was failing.
Do your sizes follow the proportion of the original?
Not quite; the original is a little wider than any of them. The closest is 40 x 50 cm.
Is this a print?
No. The work is made by hand in oil; the brushstrokes are visible and can be felt.
Can I have a size that is not on the list?
Yes, we paint to measurement and keep the proportions of the scene as we do.
Is it suitable as a gift?
Yes, especially for someone who likes strong colour. Because every piece is painted to order, allow for the making time; if you would rather leave the choice to the recipient, there is our voucher.
- Subject: two dancers in green-turquoise skirts, one holding an opened orange fan
- Original: Edgar Degas, pastel on paper, Albertina, Vienna (DL300); no dimensions given in the record
- Ours: painted by hand in oil on linen from the pastel, eight sizes from 30 x 40 to 120 x 160 cm
- Note: the orange fan is the only warm colour in a scene otherwise made entirely of one green
