Dancer with Bouquets

Nothing settles into place in Edgar Degas’ Dancer with Bouquets. With flowers at her feet, a prima ballerina bows inelegantly toward her audience. The harsh lighting seems to push back against her, illuminating her features and indicating she has danced many times before. Degas, also late in his career, had abandoned the details of his earlier paintings. Instead, he painted flat strokes of color and thick black outlines that make details indecipherable. Fascinated by dancers and the hard, often unglamorous lives they led, this canvas is one of many Degas devoted to the subject.

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