Public collection via the Cleveland Museum of Art
AT-00000242Frieze of Dancers
by Edgar Degas
About the Artwork
This painting may depict a single dancer seen from four different viewpoints. The young woman is placed in an undefined setting, surrounded by mere wisps of color, applied so spontaneously that the paint ran and dripped. Degas even added the circles in the foreground with his thumb. Such audacity, while acceptable in a small sketch, must have shocked the artist's contemporaries when presented on a six-foot canvas. Equally radical is the idea of combining multiple views of a single figure. Degas's unusual presentation may have been inspired by the photographs of Eadweard Muybridge (1830-1904)
Inscriptions
Signed in lower right: Degas
Provenance
September 19,1904: (Durand-Ruel, Paris, France, acquired from the artist and sold to Paul Cassier the same day) November 21, 1904: (Paul Cassirer, Berlin Germany, sold to Max Liebermann) 1904-May 9, 1933: Max Liebermann [1847-1935], Berlin, Germany, deposited to the Kunsthaus Zürich 1933-1935: Kunsthaus Zürich, Switzerland 1935-1946: Kathe Riezler, Max Leibermann's daughter, [1885-1952] Berlin, Germany and New York, NY, by inheritance (on loan to the Art Institute of Chicago, October 1941-October 1942). -1946: (Paul Rosenberg & Co., New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art) 1946-: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
Exhibition history
Exhibition of the Month: Art is Long. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (April 14-June 7, 1948). Art: The International Language. The Cleveland Museum of Art (October 2-November 4, 1956). Masterpieces Recalled: Benefit for League for Emotionally Disturbed Children. Rosenberg & Co., New York, NY (organizer) (February 6-March 2, 1957). In Memoriam: Leonard C. Hanna, Jr.. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 4-April 7, 1958). "Masterpieces" Memorial Exhibition of Adele R. Levy. Wildenstein & Co., New York, NY (April 6-May 7, 1961). Creativity in Art and Science, 1860-1960. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 16-November 8, 1987). Degas: Beyond Impressionism. The Art Institute of Chicago (September 28, 1996-January 12, 1997). Time Stands Still: Muybridge and the Instantaneous Photography Movement. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (February 15-May 16, 2004). Masterworks from The Phillips Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 20-May 29, 2005). Monet to Dalí: Modern Masters from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 21, 2007-January 13, 2008). Edgar Degas: A Strange New Beauty. The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY (organizer) (March 22-July 24, 2016). Artlens Exhibition 2017. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 24, 2017-May 29, 2019).
Data retrieved from the Cleveland Museum of Art on October 7, 2026. The museum may have updated its record since.
Quick Overview
- Artist
- Edgar Degas (French, 1834–1917)
- Date
- c. 1895
- Medium
- oil on fabric
- Dimensions
- Framed: 103 x 233.5 x 7 cm (40 9/16 x 91 15/16 x 2 3/4 in.); Unframed: 70 x 200.5 cm (27 9/16 x 78 15/16 in.)
- Type
- Painting
- Classification
- Painting
- Department
- Modern European Painting and Sculpture
- Credit line
- Gift of the Hanna Fund
- Accession no.
- 1946.83
More by Edgar Degas in museum collections
Open-access museum record · AT-00000242
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