We look slightly down onto a loosely painted scene with three ballerinas in rose-pink costumes and one man, wearing a black suit and top hat, against a backdrop made up of dabs and strokes of lime, mint, and pine green in this vertical painting. The people all appear to have light skin. The most defined person is the woman closest to us, shown from the knees up to the right of center. Her body is angled to our left, and her profile faces that direction. Dark eyelashes suggest her eyes are closed. She has a pointed nose, and her red lips are closed. Dark brown hair is pulled up into a large…
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Dancers Backstage

Edgar Degas (French, 1834 - 1917)

1876/1883

Medium
oil on canvas
Classification
Painting
Dimensions
overall: 24.2 x 18.8 cm (9 1/2 x 7 3/8 in.) ; framed: 43.5 × 38.1 × 9.53 cm (17 1/8 × 15 × 3 3/4 in.)
Culture
French
Museum
National Gallery of Art, CF
Credit line
Ailsa Mellon Bruce Collection
Rights
Public domain (NGA Open Access, CC0), as the museum states it.
Who can see it
Tweens profiles and older: its subjects are known and suit older children. How works are placed

View at the National Gallery of Art