Jump to content tickets Member | Make a donation
- The Collection
- The American Wing Ancient Near Eastern Art Arms and Armor The Michael C. Rockefeller Wing Asian Art The Cloisters The Costume Institute Drawings and Prints Egyptian Art European Paintings European Sculpture and Decorative Arts Greek and Roman Art Islamic Art Robert Lehman Collection The Libraries Medieval Art Musical Instruments Photographs Antonio Ratti Textile Center Modern and Contemporary Art
Crop your artwork:
Scan your QR code:
Gratefully built with ACNLPatternTool
Edgar Degas French
On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 815
This work and its variant in the Musée d'Orsay, Paris, represent the most ambitious paintings Degas devoted to the theme of the dance. Some twenty-four women, ballerinas and their mothers, wait while a dancer executes an "attitude" for her examination. Jules Perrot, a famous ballet master, conducts the class. The imaginary scene is set in a rehearsal room in the old Paris Opéra, which had recently burned to the ground. On the wall beside the mirror, a poster for Rossini’s Guillaume Tell pays tribute to the singer Jean-Baptiste Faure, who commissioned the picture and lent it to the 1876 Impressionist exhibition.
0:00
0:00
View Transcript
Open Access
As part of the Met's Open Access policy, you can freely copy, modify and distribute this image, even for commercial purposes.
API
Public domain data for this object can also be accessed using the Met's Open Access API.
- Download image
This artwork is meant to be viewed from right to left. Scroll left to view more.
Due to rights restrictions, this image cannot be enlarged, viewed at full screen, or downloaded.
Fig. 1. Edgar Degas, “La classe de danse," begun 1873, completed 1875–76, oil on canvas, 33 ½ x 29 ½ in. (Musée d’Orsay, Paris; RF1976)
Due to rights restrictions, this image cannot be enlarged, viewed at full screen, or downloaded.
Fig. 2. Edgar Degas, “The Dancer Jules Perrot” (III:157.2), 1874, charcoal and black chalk heightened with white, 19 x 12 in. (Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge)
Due to rights restrictions, this image cannot be enlarged, viewed at full screen, or downloaded.
Fig. 3. Edgar Degas, “Standing Dancer Seen From Behind,” ca. 1873, essence on pink paper, 15 ½ x 11 in. (Cabinet des Dessins, Musée du Louvre (Orsay), Paris; RF4038)
Artwork Details
Use your arrow keys to navigate the tabs below, and your tab key to choose an item
Title: The Dance Class
Artist: Edgar Degas (French, Paris 1834–1917 Paris)
Date: 1874
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 32 7/8 x 30 3/8 in. (83.5 x 77.2 cm)
Classification: Paintings
Credit Line: Bequest of Mrs. Harry Payne Bingham, 1986
Accession Number: 1987.47.1
Learn more about this artwork
Connections: Motherhood
Lecturer Jean Sorabella finds inspiration in idealized depictions of mothers.
Timeline of Art History
Essay
Edgar Degas (1834-1917): Painting and Drawing
Essay
Impressionism: Art and Modernity
Chronology
France, 1800-1900 A.D.
Museum Publications
Splendid Legacy: The Havemeyer Collection
Recent Acquisitions: A Selection, 1986–1987
One Met. Many Worlds.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Masterpiece Paintings
The Metropolitan Museum of Art Guide (Spanish)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art Guide (Russian)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art Guide (Portuguese)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art Guide (Korean)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art Guide (Japanese)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art Guide (Italian)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art Guide (German)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art Guide (French)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art Guide (Chinese)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art Guide (Arabic)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art Guide
The Metropolitan Museum of Art Guide
Masterpieces of European Painting, 1800–1920, in The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Making The Met, 1870–2020
European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art by Artists Born before 1865: A Summary Catalogue
Degas, 1834–1917
Related Artworks
- All Related Artworks
- In the same gallery
- By Edgar Degas
- European Paintings
- Canvas
- Oil paint
- Paintings
- From Europe
- From France
- From A.D. 1800–1900
Huit Sonnets. . .Illustré de dix-nuef dessins inédits de Edgar Degas
Illustrated by Edgar Degas (French, Paris 1834–1917 Paris)
1946
Seated Woman in Bonnet and Shawl
Edgar Degas (French, Paris 1834–1917 Paris)
ca. 1879
At the Café des Ambassadeurs
Edgar Degas (French, Paris 1834–1917 Paris)
1879–80
Greek Landscape
Edgar Degas (French, Paris 1834–1917 Paris)
1856
On Stage III
Edgar Degas (French, Paris 1834–1917 Paris)
1876–77
Resources for Research
The Met's Libraries and Research Centers provide unparalleled resources for research and welcome an international community of students and scholars.
The Met Collection API is where all makers, creators, researchers, and dreamers can connect to the most up-to-date data and public domain images for The Met collection. Open Access data and public domain images are available for unrestricted commercial and noncommercial use without permission or fee.
Feedback
We continue to research and examine historical and cultural context for objects in The Met collection. If you have comments or questions about this object record, please complete and submit this form. The Museum looks forward to receiving your comments.
European Paintings at The Met
The Met's celebrated European Paintings collection encompasses more than 2,500 works of art from the thirteenth through the early twentieth century.
