Edgar Degas

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Edgar Degas
1834-1917
Dancer with Arms Outstretched
1878-1879
Black and white chalk, squared in black chalk.
9 1/4 x 13 1/8 inches (227 x 321 mm)
Thaw Collection.
2017.58

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Notes: 

By the late 1870s, Degas had become increasingly absorbed by the behind-the-scenes activities at the ballet. This study of a dancer in second position is for a ballerina in The Rehearsal (1878-79; Frick Collection, New York), which shows dancers practicing with a violinist in the rehearsal studio. Both the Frick painting and the present drawing were in the collection of Degas' lifelong friend, the industrialist and Impressionist supporter Henri Rouart (1833-1912). Degas' note about the reflections on the dancer's arm attests to his focus on how light defines the girl's body; the squared grid indicates that Degas transferred the figure to another support while working on his canvas. --Exhibition Label, from “Degas: Drawings and Sketchbooks”

Inscription: 

Inscribed by the artist below the left arm: "reflets (dans les ?) bras".

Provenance: 
Fourth Degas atelier sale (Lugt 658), Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, 2-4 July 1919, IV, p. 247, no. 284a; Le Niveau Gallery, New York; Marie Harriman Gallery, New York; Marie and Averell Harriman Collection, New York; sale, Sotheby Parke Bernet, New York, 18 May 1972, no. 89; Eugene V. and Clare E. Thaw, New York.
Associated names: 

Thaw, Eugene Victor, former owner.
Thaw, Clare, former owner.

Bibliography: 

Thaw Catalogue Raisonné, 2017, no. 86, repr.
Stampfle, Felice, and Cara D. Denison. Drawings from the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Eugene V. Thaw. New York : Pierpont Morgan Library, 1975, no. 97.

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