Four Dancers at the Bar 1906

Louis Legrand made this print, Four Dancers at the Bar, using etching and aquatint. There’s something tender about the way he captures these dancers during a break. Legrand uses these swooping, feathery lines to build up the forms, almost as if he’s sketching them from life, trying to nail down the gesture of the moment. Look at the dancer at the front, slumped over the bar. You can almost feel the weight of her exhaustion in the way her body droops. The lines are thicker here, creating a sense of density and solidity, and a wonderful contrast with the more ephemeral feeling of the dancers to the right. It reminds me of Degas and his paintings of ballet dancers, but with a slightly different sensibility. Where Degas often focuses on the spectacle of the performance, Legrand seems more interested in the quiet, intimate moments behind the scenes. It’s like he’s saying, “Here, look at the real life of these dancers, the hard work, the weariness, and the beauty in the everyday.” And maybe that’s the real performance, the endurance and strength it takes to keep going.