
Public collection via the Art Institute of Chicago
AT-00003074Ballet at the Paris Opéra
by Edgar Degas
Inscriptions
Signed recto, lower left, in white pastel: "Degas"
Provenance
Albert Hecht (1842–1889), Paris; by descent to his wife, Mme. Albert Hecht (née Mathilde Oulman), Paris, to at least, April 1924 [Paris 1924 exh. cat.]; by descent to her daughter, Suzanne Hecht (later Mme. Emannuel Pontremoli; died 1956), Paris, by 1939 [Lemoisne 1946]. Mary and Leigh Block, Chicago, by May 1967 [Washington DC 1967 exh. cat.]; given to the Art Institute, 1981.
Exhibition history
Third Impressionist Exhibition 1877. Paris, Galerie Georges Petit, "Exposition Degas," April 12-May 2, 1924, p. 63, cat. 113. Washington D.C., The National Gallery of Art, "100 European Paintings and Drawings from the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Leigh B. Block," May 4-June 11, 1967, cat. 6; traveled to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, September 21-November 2, 1967. The Art Institute of Chicago, "Degas in The Art Institute of Chicago," July 19-September 23, 1984, pp. 72-74, cat. 31 (ill.), cat. by Richard R. Brettell and Suzanne Folds McCullagh. Detroit Institute of Arts, "Degas and the Dance," October 20, 2002-January 12, 2003, p. 95, 111, 165-167, 291, pl. 183 (ill. p.166), cat. by Jill DeVonyar and Richard Kendall. Fort Worth, Kimbell Art Museum, “The Impressionists: Master Paintings from the Art Institute of Chicago,” June 29-November 2, 2008, p. 91, cat. 40 (ill.), cat. by Gloria Groom and Douglas Druick. The Art Institute of Chicago, "Degas: At the Track, On the Stage", July 1, 2015-February 26, 2016, no cat.
Publications
Paul André Lemoisne, Degas et son Oeuvre (Paris, 1946), no. 513 (ill.). Jean Sutherland Boggs, “Degas Monotypes at the Fogg,” The Burlington Magazine 110:784 (July 1968), pp. 429-430 (ill). Fiorella Minervino, L'Opera Completa di Degas (Milan, 1970), no. 724. George T.M. Shackelford, Degas: The Dancers, exh. cat. (Washington D.C., 1984), p. 30, fig. 1.6. The New Paintings: Impressionism 1874-1886, exh. cat. (San Francisco, 1986), p. 204. Richard Brettell, French Impressionists (Chicago, 1987), pp. 20-22, and 117 (ill.). Jean Sutherland Boggs and Anne Maheux, Degas Pastels (New York, 1992), p. 52, pl. 7. James N. Wood and Sally Ruth May, The Art Institute of Chicago: The Essential Guide (Chicago, 1993), p. 214 (ill.). Jean Sutherland Boggs, Degas (Chicago, 1996), pp. 30-31, 33(ill. detail), 82 (ill.), and 108, pl. 11. James N. Wood, Impressionism and Post-Impressionism in the Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago, 2000), p.49 (ill.). James N. Wood and Sally Ruth May, The Art Institute of Chicago: The Essential Guide (Chicago, 2003), p. 214 (ill.). Maria Teresa Benedetti, Degas Classico e Moderno, exh. cat. (Rome, 2004), p. 233.
Data retrieved from the Art Institute of Chicago on October 8, 2026. The museum may have updated its record since.
Quick Overview
- Artist
- Edgar Degas / French, 1834-1917
- Date
- 1877
- Medium
- Pastel over monotype on cream laid paper
- Dimensions
- Plate: 35.2 × 70.6 cm (13 7/8 × 27 13/16 in.); Sheet: 35.9 × 71.9 cm (14 3/16 × 28 5/16 in.)
- Type
- Drawing
- Classification
- pastel
- Style
- Impressionism
- Place
- France
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Credit line
- Gift of Mary and Leigh Block
- Accession no.
- 1981.12
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