Dancer Putting on Her Stockings (Second State) 1895 - 1920

Curator: This is Edgar Degas’s "Dancer Putting on Her Stockings," a bronze sculpture he likely conceived between 1895 and 1910. Editor: The first thing that strikes me is how tactile it is. I can almost feel the texture of the bronze, the roughhewn surface conveying a real sense of immediacy and process. Curator: Yes, Degas's approach really does emphasize process, and his choice of bronze, especially given how it seems so raw and unfinished, highlights his exploration into form. Consider how this image of the dancer and her simple act echoes depictions of Venus preparing herself; she even twists in a classical contrapposto pose. Editor: And the facture! Degas certainly challenges any preciousness often associated with bronze, doesn't he? We're very far away from a highly polished academic surface. You can see the marks of his hands, of the tools— the making is absolutely laid bare here. I wonder if, in dispensing with some of the "finish," he brings us closer to the lived experience of his subject. Curator: Precisely, by showing a vulnerable, even quotidian moment, he disrupts the established art-historical expectation of dancers represented in performance alone. I’m also intrigued by the choice to capture the woman’s vulnerability and effort; it seems to expose what’s underneath the glitz and glamour, as we might read similar sentiments in the Symbolist art of the period. Editor: And even today, it challenges the division of fine art versus craft! It compels you to consider labor: hers, in readying for a performance, and Degas's own physical effort, wrestling with the materials in his studio. There's nothing dainty or distant about the making of this sculpture. Curator: Right. It bridges that gap between reality and representation and invites us to contemplate these quiet yet very physical rituals and actions as worthy of artistic consideration. Editor: Exactly. And to think of how, in representing those quotidian moments, Degas manages to make art of the everyday struggles as well.