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A densely packed crowd of men and women, all of them with pale skin and most of them wearing black, stand in a theater lobby beneath a mezzanine level that runs close to the top edge of the composition in this horizontal painting. Because the crowd spans the width of the composition, the first impression is of a mass of deep black stretching across the canvas. Slowly, individual faces and poses become evident. Five of the women wear black, oval masks that cover their eyes and noses, and one more mask has fallen onto the rust-red floor below. Two women, wearing bright white and colorful…
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Masked Ball at the Opera

Edouard Manet (French, 1832 - 1883)

1873

Medium
oil on canvas
Classification
Painting
Dimensions
overall: 59.1 x 72.5 cm (23 1/4 x 28 9/16 in.) ; framed: 80 x 94 cm (31 1/2 x 37 in.)
Culture
French
Museum
National Gallery of Art, CF
Credit line
Gift of Mrs. Horace Havemeyer in memory of her mother-in-law, Louisine W. Havemeyer
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

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