When museum founder Duncan Phillips bought Edgar Degas' painting "Dancers at the Barre" in 1944, he knew that it would be one of the most important paintings at the Phillips Collection. That's why it's an apt bit of curatorial choreography to have that painting as the focus for the exhibit "Degas: Dancers at the Barre — Point and Counterpoint."
Comprised of paintings, sculptures and works on paper from various museums and private collections, this exhibit gives you a chance to see Degas working variations on a theme.
Just as dancers are constantly stretching their muscles and trying out different positions in rehearsal, Degas spent decades exploring different ways to depict them. Rather than documenting them in public performance, he was happier observing them rehearsing or relaxing.
The Phillips-owned "Dancers at the Barre" that kicks off the show is itself a fine example of how this French artist often worked out his variations on the canvas itself. This painting is a tightly cropped depiction of a couple of tutu-clad ballerinas stretching. They're mostly seen from the back, so the viewer is prompted to consider them as extended limbs rather than as women posing for a portrait.
Speaking of limbs, Degas tried out a number of positions from the time when he started working on this particular painting in the early 1880s to the time when he finally administered the last variation around 1900.
Newly cleaned and studied, this oil painting's presentation of the dancers against an orange wall now seems especially sharp. You can detect traces of earlier positions for their arms and legs peeking through the assertive orange surface of the wall on which the barre is mounted.
Installed nearby in this exhibit is a related circa 1900 charcoal and pastel drawing "Dancers at the Barre" on loan from the National Gallery of Canada, in Ottawa. Although the composition is not identical, it's close enough to give a sense of how Degas constantly reconsidered how to position these two dancers.
The immediacy of working in pencil and pastel explains why the works on paper are among the most vibrant pieces in the show. Degas' pastel "Study of Nude Dancer at the Barre" (1895-98), charcoal "Two Dancers Resting" (c. 1890-95) and charcoal and pastel "Three Dancers" (c. 1889) convey how the dancers are constantly stretching. Even when they're at rest, their limbs are gracefully extended.
Although most of the exhibited works feature a single dancer or no more than a few dancers clustered together, several of the paintings ambitiously capture the studio atmosphere when the place is brimming with ballerinas.
The oil painting "Ballet Rehearsal" (c. 1885-91) considers the rehearsing dancers from enough of a distance to emphasize how their motion is frozen within an otherwise nearly empty room. Some of them are stretching at the barre, while others are seated as if awaiting their turn.
The oil painting "The Dance Class" (c. 1873) has the dancers practicing in a tighter space. An ingenious compositional tactic in this painting is how Degas fills the uppermost left edge of the painting with the legs of dancers descending a circular staircase. There's essentially movement wherever you look in this painting.
A few small bronze sculptures in the exhibit make it clear that Degas continued to think about dancers regardless of the medium. These three-dimensional works are displayd in cases that facilitate your own movement around them.
Representing another kind of movement, Degas moved in the artistic and social circles of his era. This socializing included collecting art made by many of his famous peers. A sampling of artwork once owned by Degas is installed at the end of this exhibit. Besides making excellent art, he also knew how to spot it elsewhere.
"Degas: Dancers at the Barre — Point and Counterpoint" remains through Jan. 8 at the Phillips Collection, at 1600 21st Street NW in Washington, D.C. Call 202-387-2151 or go to http://www.phillipscollection.org.