Collection: Degas at the Opéra

National Gallery of Art, Washington DC

March 1, 2020 – July 5, 2020

An exuberant display of fecund imagination and keen observation, Edgar Degas’s renowned images of the Paris Opéra are among the most sophisticated and visually compelling works he ever created. Celebrating the 350th anniversary of the Opéra’s founding, Degas at the Opéra will present approximately 100 of the artist’s best-known and beloved works in a range of media, including paintings, pastels, drawings, prints, and sculpture. It will be accompanied by a fully illustrated exhibition catalog.

Degas (1834–1917) is celebrated as the painter of dancers, a subject that dominated his art for nearly four decades. Although there have been many exhibitions celebrating his love of the ballet, this will be the first to consider his enduring fascination with the opéra. A music lover and regular visitor to performances, Degas explored both the public spaces of the Paris Opéra—auditorium, stage, and boxes—as well as more private ones, including dance studios and backstage. He was friends with many of the people he depicted in his paintings, from dancers, singers, and orchestra musicians to the dark-suited subscribers.

The Opéra also fueled some of Degas’s most daring technical innovations, including his first monotype, The Ballet Master (c. 1876), and his wax statue Little Dancer Aged Fourteen (1881), which revolutionized sculpture.

30 products
The Curtain by Edgar Degas
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from $20.00 to $120.00
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$120.00
The Ballet by Edgar Degas
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from $20.00 to $120.00
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$120.00
Young Spartans exercising by Edgar Degas
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$120.00
Portrait of Eugénie Fiocre a propos of the Ballet "La Source" by Edgar Degas
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$120.00
Lorenzo Pagans and Auguste De Gas by Edgar Degas
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$120.00
Madame Camus by Edgar Degas
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$120.00
The Orchestra of the Opéra by Edgar Degas
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$120.00
The Cellist Louis-Marie Pilet by Edgar Degas
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$120.00
The Ballet Rehearsal on Stage by Edgar Degas
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$120.00
Dancers at the Old Opera House by Edgar Degas
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Dancer with a Bouquet Curtseying on Stage by Edgar Degas
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$120.00
Ballet Dancers by Edgar Degas
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Ballet Scene by Edgar Degas
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The Dance Lesson by Edgar Degas
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Before the Ballet by Edgar Degas
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Dancer Climbing the Stairs by Edgar Degas
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Dancers in the Green Room by Edgar Degas
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The Dance Class by Edgar Degas
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The Rehearsal by Edgar Degas
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$120.00
Friends at the Theatre, Ludovic Halevy (1834-1908) and Albert Cave (1832-1910) by Edgar Degas
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$120.00
The Dance Foyer at the Opera on the rue Le Peletier by Edgar Degas
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Examen de Danse (Dance Examination) by Edgar Degas
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The Star, or Dancer on the stage by Edgar Degas
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Dancers Backstage by Edgar Degas
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Three Dancers (Blue Skirts, Red Bodices) by Edgar Degas
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A Group of Dancers by Edgar Degas
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Dancers in Blue by Edgar Degas
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Yellow Dancers by Edgar Degas
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Four Dancers by Edgar Degas
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The Dancing Lesson by Edgar Degas
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$120.00