“People call me the painter of dancing girls,” Degas told Paris art dealer Ambroise Vollard. “It has never occurred to them that my chief interest in dancers lies in rendering movement and painting pretty clothes.” Even in this etching, where we see a ballet dancer tying her flats, Degas renders her movement with such fluidity and her clothes with such attention to detail that his statement couldn’t ring truer. Effortless and captivating, Degas calls attention to the genuine aspects of a dancers world while maintaining the beauty and secret ambiance that surrounds it. An unprecedented feat for an artist and one that makes Degas dancers among his most valuable.

Created c. 1892, this etching on wove paper is from the second and final state.

Catalogue Raisonné & COA:
This work is fully documented and referenced in the below catalogue raisonnés and texts (copies will be enclosed as added documentation with the invoices that will accompany the final sale of the work).

1. Adhémar, Jean and Cachin, Françoise, Degas:  The Complete Etchings, Lithographs, and Monotypes, Secaucus: Chartwell Books, Inc., 1974. Listed and illustrated as catalogue raisonné no. 60.

2. Delteil, Loys, Le Peintre-Graveur Illustre Edgar Degas, New York: Collectors Editions Ltd. And Da Capo Press, 1969. Listed and illustrated as catalogue raisonné no. 36.

3. Johnson, U. E.  Ambroise Vollard, Editeur: Prints, Books, Bronzes. New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1977. The canceled plate listed as catalogue raisonné no. 28.

4. A Certificate of Authenticity will accompany this work.

About the Framing:
Framed to museum-grade, conservation standards, this work is presented in a complementary moulding and finished with silk-wrapped mats and optical grade Plexiglas.