Danseuses en maillot, au repos 1900 - 1905

Edgar Degas made this drawing, Danseuses en maillot, au repos, with charcoal, and I love how he captured dancers during their downtime. You can almost feel the studio dust in the air, can’t you? The way Degas layers those charcoal lines, it's like he’s mapping the dancers' exhaustion. Look closely, and you can see how he uses smudging to create shadows, giving the figures weight and volume. It's not about perfect representation; it’s about capturing a feeling, a moment. That dark line tracing the dancer standing at the left is so powerful, the weight of her arm is so present. Degas was always playing with this tension between movement and stillness, just like the work of Jenny Saville. It's like he's saying, "Art isn't about perfection; it's about the messy, beautiful process of trying to capture life as it unfolds." And that's something I can definitely get behind.