Two Dancers by Edgar Degas Tissue Paper

Two Dancers by Edgar Degas, pastel on cardboard c. 1905, is a painting of two ballerinas standing in different dance poses, one facing the viewer with her head turned in profile and holding a fan, the other dancer facing the colourful, pale blue stage scenery. The figures counterpoint each other in the positions of their arms. Degas defines the relief-like forms of the dancers in thick, expressive outlines with soft, harmonious tones that merge the costumes of the figures with the luminous colours of the background. Complex layers of blue, orange and grey form flattened textured areas of warm and cool colours over the warm cardboard ground. Degas captures the light, colour and atmosphere of the stage setting, as well as the form, movement, and muscular strain of the formal dance moves of the two young ballet dancers.