Free shipping on orders over $60$5 flat rate under $604 items: 10% off · 8 items: 20% off
You save $109.97
Free shipping over $60 · 30-day returns · Dispatched in 1–2 business days
Looking for portrait oil painting with real brushwork? Dance Class at the Opera is reproduced by hand in oils on artist-grade canvas after Edgar Degas. The result is a piece of impressionist oil painting wall decor that anchors a living room and rewards a closer look.
1872
Oil on canvas
Musée d'Orsay, France.
DEGAS' FIRST TREATMENT OF THE BALLET DANCERS at the Paris Opera was coolly objective and most carefully studied. Each figure was first sketched and then combined with others into the broken frieze of dancers which stretches in a subtly varied manner across the whole picture. He was not ready, yet, to set his figures in motion but preferred to represent them as taking their preparatory positions or practicing at the bar.
In a later canvas, The Dancing Class, painted about 1876, a detail of which appears on the cover of this book, we see how quickly the artist advanced into the world of movement and casual effect which he was to make his own. The canvas is larger in size, broader, freer, and lighter in treatment, full of many impressions gathered into a remarkably complex design. What intense studv has gone into each ballerina! Each is caught in an individual pose and gesture, and for the first time the artist has attempted a figure in action. All the bustle and confusion of many movements is caught with an almost cameralike fidelity; Degas cuts off one figure by another, overlapping forms masterfully, but so shrewdly are they fitted together that there is no real confusion.
Perspective, in this later picture, is cultivated by the slanting floor and the diagonal line of dancers in the left foreground, continuing back into the farthest corner, where some of the mothers are watching the class, their street clothes furnishing a foil for the light, graceful costumes of the dancers. Here at last was something new in art - a surprising view of a little-known outer world - composed with the grace and authority of an old master.
Beturning to the more static Louvre picture opposite, we note that the details of the architectural setting are used to frame groups of figures and lend stability by repeated verticals and horizontals. Space is suggested bv the open doorway on the left and the shifting reflections in the central mirror, as well as by the chair in the foreground which helps to create an illusion of depth. The light, entering from the right, falls clearly across the scene, and a repeated white is contrasted with dark notes in the sashes, neckbands, and the suit and music stand of the violinist. A recent student of the ballet finds that Degas has enlivened the ballet costumes of the day with bright sashes and black ribbons of his own invention; these little touches combined with the red line of the practice bar add a decorative charm.
As living room wall decor, the piece pairs naturally with other impressionist wall art and with warm neutrals, timber, and soft natural light.
Trained artists work in stages — underpainting, mid-tones, highlights, and detail — using traditional oils on canvas. Because nothing is printed, every hand painted oil painting has its own subtle texture and depth.
For living room wall decor that does not feel generic, a painted figurative canvas is hard to beat. It is a popular portrait oil painting pick for new homeowners and a durable alternative to seasonal poster art.
| Size | Price |
|---|---|
| 20 X 24 in | $109.98 |
| 24 X 36 in | $167.98 |
| 30 X 40 in | $216.48 |
| 36 X 48 in | $292.98 |
| 48 X 72 in | $554.98 |
The sizes shown are the reproduction canvas sizes we paint to order. The dimensions given in a work's description refer to the original artwork and will differ from the sizes offered here. Not sure? Read the size guide or e-mail us.
Free on orders over $60; a flat $5 below that. Dispatched in 1–2 business days; 30 days to send it back. Full policy.
Every canvas is painted by hand in oils on artist-grade stretched canvas, with an extra blank border left for framing. How to care for your painting.
Measurements are on the size guide, or e-mail [email protected] and we reply within one business day.
