00:26Edgar Degas was a French artist, famous for his paintings, sculptures, prints and drawings.
00:35He is especially identified with the subject of dance. More than half of his works depict dancers.
00:43He is regarded as one of the founders of Impressionism, although he rejected the term, preferring to be called a realist.
00:53He was a superb draftsman and particularly masterly in depicting movement, as can be seen in his renditions of dancers, racecourse subjects and female nudes.
01:06His portraits are notable for their psychological complexity and for their portrayal of human isolation.
01:14Waiting is a pastel on paper by the French Impressionist Edgar Degas.
01:20It is an early example of the more than 200 pastels, paintings, mixed media drawings and sculptures of ballerinas, depicted by Degas from the early 1880s.
01:33This work is regarded for its vibrant colouring and steep perspective.
01:40The composition is contrived to emphasise the mood.
01:44The weary bending form of the dancer is opposed to the patient, more erect and yet slumping figure of the woman.
01:53Both figures are on the left side of the bench, the diagonal line of which is paralleled in the floorboards.
02:01And again, emptiness on one side is balanced by fullness on the other.
02:07The round, curving lines of the girl are played against the angular outline of the woman, the charm of colour in her costume, against the snuffy black of her companions.
02:20Waiting is located in J. Paul Getty Museum in Pasadena, Los Angeles, the United States.
02:29The interior, also known as the rape, is an oil painting on canvas by Edgar Degas.
02:37Described as the most puzzling of Degas major works, it depicts a tense confrontation by lamplight between a man and a partially undressed woman.
02:48The theatrical character of the scene has led art historians to seek a literary source for the composition.
02:57But none of the sources proposed has met with universal acceptance.
03:02Even the painting's title is uncertain.
03:05Acquaintances of the artist referred to it either as L'Oviol or Anterior, and it was under the latter title.
03:14The Degas exhibited it for the first time in 1905.
03:20Edgar Degas did not exhibit this painting and kept it in his possession until 1904, when he sold it at Galerie du Ranruel.
03:31No one seems to know why he painted such a scene or what he was trying to say.
03:37But the painting does contain elements Degas deemed important.
03:43The painting is housed in the Philadelphia Museum of Art in the United States.
03:49Ballet rehearsal on stage was painted in 1874.
03:54For ballet rehearsal, Degas chose a viewpoint slightly from above to one side with the focus on the stage bordered by the footlights.
04:05The lightness of the ballerinas dancing contrasts with the relaxed gestures of those on the left waiting to perform.
04:14The thin layer of paint, rendered even more transparent with time, allows the naked eye to see the painters reworking.
04:23The legs of some of the dancers at rest have been retouched.
04:28In the middle of the young women stood a ballet teacher, his back towards the viewer.
04:34Finally, near to the seated man was another figure collapsed in a chair.
04:39This painting in shades of grey was immediately noticed at the first Impressionist exhibition in 1874.
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