{"data":{"id":61603,"api_model":"artworks","api_link":"https:\/\/api.artic.edu\/api\/v1\/artworks\/61603","is_boosted":true,"title":"Ballet at the Paris Op\u00e9ra","alt_titles":null,"thumbnail":{"lqip":"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhCgAFAPUAADtMRVJPRFlOQlBNSFFNSEVURU1USldSS1dSTVRXTV9ZTldVUl1ZU2hbTVdkU19kVV5tX2FkUGFjVWVoVGhoVGZhW29lXGVtXG1rWmlpXW5tXmZxX3VxX1toZG5oYG5uZ3ZsY3BqZGN1a3RxYnFyZXRxZntxan19bnl9cnh7dX57doJ\/dpGEeJKOhaCUjKebk6yflsGupQAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACH5BAAAAAAALAAAAAAKAAUAAAYuQIjoQuGQTqhOyrEZYSQJA6AweURYrxIoxAhoMp9VywWLmRYqj6BxQFQshIEiCAA7","width":8382,"height":4197,"alt_text":"Color pastel drawing of ballerinas in tutus on stage, watched by audience."},"main_reference_number":"1981.12","has_not_been_viewed_much":false,"boost_rank":null,"date_start":1877,"date_end":1877,"date_display":"1877","date_qualifier_title":"","date_qualifier_id":null,"artist_display":"Edgar Degas\nFrench, 1834-1917","place_of_origin":"France","description":"<p>One of the nineteenth century\u2019s most innovative artists, Edgar Degas often combined traditional techniques in unorthodox ways. In <em>Ballet at the Paris Op\u00e9ra<\/em>, the artist creatively joined the monotype technique, rarely used in his time, with the fragile medium of pastel. Described as \u201cthe powder of butterfly wings,\u201d pastel was the perfect medium to illustrate the onstage metamorphosis of spindly young dancers into visions of beauty as perfect and short-lived as butterflies. This work, executed on one of the widest monotype plates ever used by the artist, bears Degas\u2019s characteristically cropped forms and odd vantage points, which effectively convey the immediacy of the scene. The view is from the orchestra pit, with the necks of the double basses intruding into the dancers\u2019 zone. The central dancer is in fifth position, <em>en pointe<\/em>, but the random placement of the corps de ballet, with the dancers\u2019 free-flowing hair, suggests a rehearsal rather than a performance. The Paris Op\u00e9ra was the official school of the first state-supported ballet, the Acad\u00e9mie Royale de Danse, created in 1661.<\/p>\n","short_description":null,"dimensions":"Plate: 35.2 \u00d7 70.6 cm (13 7\/8 \u00d7 27 13\/16 in.); Sheet: 35.9 \u00d7 71.9 cm (14 3\/16 \u00d7 28 5\/16 in.)","dimensions_detail":[{"depth":null,"width":70,"height":35,"diameter":null,"clarification":"Plate"},{"depth":null,"width":71,"height":35,"diameter":null,"clarification":"Sheet"}],"medium_display":"Pastel over monotype on cream laid paper","inscriptions":"Signed recto, lower left, in white pastel: \"Degas\"","credit_line":"Gift of Mary and Leigh Block","catalogue_display":null,"publication_history":"Paul Andr\u00e9 Lemoisne, Degas et son Oeuvre (Paris, 1946), no. 513 (ill.).\n\nJean Sutherland Boggs, \u201cDegas Monotypes at the Fogg,\u201d The Burlington Magazine 110:784 (July 1968), pp. 429-430 (ill).\n\nFiorella Minervino, L'Opera Completa di Degas (Milan, 1970), no. 724.\n\nGeorge T.M. Shackelford, Degas: The Dancers, exh. cat. (Washington D.C., 1984), p. 30, fig. 1.6.\n\nThe New Paintings: Impressionism 1874-1886, exh. cat. (San Francisco, 1986), p. 204.\n\nRichard Brettell, French Impressionists (Chicago, 1987), pp. 20-22, and 117 (ill.).\n\nJean Sutherland Boggs and Anne Maheux, Degas Pastels (New York, 1992), p. 52, pl. 7.\n\nJames N. Wood and Sally Ruth May, The Art Institute of Chicago: The Essential Guide (Chicago, 1993), p. 214 (ill.).\n\nJean Sutherland Boggs, Degas (Chicago, 1996), pp. 30-31, 33(ill. detail), 82 (ill.), and 108, pl. 11.\n\nJames N. Wood, Impressionism and Post-Impressionism in the Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago, 2000), p.49 (ill.).\n\nJames N. Wood and Sally Ruth May, The Art Institute of Chicago: The Essential Guide (Chicago, 2003), p. 214 (ill.).\n\nMaria Teresa Benedetti, Degas Classico e Moderno, exh. cat. (Rome, 2004), p. 233.","exhibition_history":"Third Impressionist Exhibition 1877.\n\nParis, Galerie Georges Petit, \"Exposition Degas,\" April 12-May 2, 1924, p. 63, cat. 113.\n\nWashington D.C., The National Gallery of Art, \"100 European Paintings and Drawings from the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Leigh B. Block,\" May 4-June 11, 1967, cat. 6; traveled to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, September 21-November 2, 1967.\n\nThe Art Institute of Chicago, \"Degas in The Art Institute of Chicago,\" July 19-September 23, 1984, pp. 72-74, cat. 31 (ill.), cat. by Richard R. Brettell and Suzanne Folds McCullagh.\n\nDetroit Institute of Arts, \"Degas and the Dance,\" October 20, 2002-January 12, 2003, p. 95, 111, 165-167, 291, pl. 183 (ill. p.166), cat. by Jill DeVonyar and Richard Kendall.\n\nFort Worth, Kimbell Art Museum, \u201cThe Impressionists: Master Paintings from the Art Institute of Chicago,\u201d June 29-November 2, 2008, p. 91, cat. 40 (ill.), cat. by Gloria Groom and Douglas Druick.\n\nThe Art Institute of Chicago, \"Degas: At the Track, On the Stage\", July 1, 2015-February 26, 2016, no cat.","provenance_text":"Albert Hecht (1842\u20131889), Paris; by descent to his wife, Mme. Albert Hecht (n\u00e9e Mathilde Oulman), Paris, to at least, April 1924 [Paris 1924 exh. cat.]; by descent to her daughter, Suzanne Hecht (later Mme. Emannuel Pontremoli; died 1956), Paris, by 1939 [Lemoisne 1946]. Mary and Leigh Block, Chicago, by May 1967 [Washington DC 1967 exh. cat.]; given to the Art Institute, 1981.","edition":null,"publishing_verification_level":"Web Cataloged","internal_department_id":3,"fiscal_year":1981,"fiscal_year_deaccession":null,"is_public_domain":true,"is_zoomable":true,"max_zoom_window_size":-1,"copyright_notice":null,"has_multimedia_resources":false,"has_educational_resources":false,"has_advanced_imaging":false,"colorfulness":18.7729,"color":{"h":62,"l":35,"s":9,"percentage":0.9253793436890364,"population":3292},"latitude":null,"longitude":null,"latlon":null,"is_on_view":false,"on_loan_display":null,"gallery_title":null,"gallery_id":null,"nomisma_id":null,"artwork_type_title":"Drawing and Watercolor","artwork_type_id":14,"department_title":"Prints and Drawings","department_id":"PC-13","artist_id":40543,"artist_title":"Hilaire Germain Edgar Degas","alt_artist_ids":[],"artist_ids":[40543],"artist_titles":["Hilaire Germain Edgar Degas"],"category_ids":["PC-13","PC-109","PC-831"],"category_titles":["Prints and Drawings","Art Institute Icons","Essentials"],"term_titles":["pastel","Impressionism","drawing (image-making)","dancers","paper (fiber product)","pastels (crayons)","crayons","drawings (visual works)","prints and drawing","monotype (process)","leisure","work","women","paper","monotype","laid paper"],"style_id":"TM-7543","style_title":"Impressionism","alt_style_ids":[],"style_ids":["TM-7543"],"style_titles":["Impressionism"],"classification_id":"TM-229","classification_title":"pastel","alt_classification_ids":["TM-5","TM-4","TM-145","TM-227"],"classification_ids":["TM-229","TM-5","TM-4","TM-145","TM-227"],"classification_titles":["pastel","drawings (visual works)","prints and drawing","paper","monotype"],"subject_id":"TM-10119","alt_subject_ids":["TM-10094","TM-10093","TM-8735"],"subject_ids":["TM-10119","TM-10094","TM-10093","TM-8735"],"subject_titles":["dancers","leisure","work","women"],"material_id":"TM-2982","alt_material_ids":["TM-2417","TM-2418","TM-3070"],"material_ids":["TM-2982","TM-2417","TM-2418","TM-3070"],"material_titles":["paper (fiber product)","pastels (crayons)","crayons","laid paper"],"technique_id":"TM-3919","alt_technique_ids":["TM-3901"],"technique_ids":["TM-3919","TM-3901"],"technique_titles":["drawing (image-making)","monotype (process)"],"theme_titles":["Art Institute Icons","Essentials"],"image_id":"cb34b0a8-bc51-d063-aab1-47c7debf3a7b","alt_image_ids":[],"document_ids":[],"sound_ids":[],"video_ids":[],"text_ids":[],"section_ids":[],"section_titles":[],"site_ids":[],"suggest_autocomplete_boosted":"Ballet at the Paris Op\u00e9ra","suggest_autocomplete_all":[{"input":["1981.12"],"contexts":{"groupings":["accession"]}},{"input":["Ballet at the Paris Op\u00e9ra"],"weight":33365,"contexts":{"groupings":["title"]}}],"source_updated_at":"2025-11-11T11:11:04-06:00","updated_at":"2026-03-03T07:21:16-06:00","timestamp":"2026-09-01T23:08:46-05:00"},"info":{"license_text":"The `description` field in this response is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Generic License (CC-By) and the Terms and Conditions of artic.edu. All other data in this response is licensed under a Creative Commons Zero (CC0) 1.0 designation and the Terms and Conditions of artic.edu.","license_links":["https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/publicdomain\/zero\/1.0\/","https:\/\/www.artic.edu\/terms"],"version":"1.15"},"config":{"iiif_url":"https:\/\/www.artic.edu\/iiif\/2","website_url":"http:\/\/www.artic.edu"}}