ancer with Red Stockings 1884

Curator: This drawing by Edgar Degas, created in 1884, captures two dancers in a private moment. It's titled "Dancer with Red Stockings." Degas employed pastel and pencil to create this genre scene. Editor: Oh, wow, I immediately get a sense of quiet preparation. Like, the air in the room is thick with anticipation and maybe a little boredom. That other dancer looks totally over it. Curator: Precisely. Degas's work often presents a backstage view, revealing the less glamorous side of ballet. We see the physical labor and the waiting, shifting away from the romantic stage performances typically associated with ballet. We need to remember how constrained the opportunities were for women and girls at the time. Editor: I feel that. It makes me think about the physical toll. Look at the way she’s tugging up her stocking—that vibrant red—almost like she’s pulling on armor before battle, readying to meet external expectations and constricting ideals. It’s kind of exhausting, even to look at. Curator: It's about the laboring body. And it also shows how female bodies were constantly objectified, even then. The artist doesn't seem especially concerned about the subject’s psychological state or internal life. His work also doesn't exactly champion radical politics either. We are mostly given bodies in a space. Editor: Right, there’s a tension there for me. I appreciate how real Degas gets—not everything has to be a romantic pose or some impossible ideal. But it does feel... voyeuristic at times, like a candid snap, only carefully composed. A bit cold and distant somehow. Still I keep getting drawn to those stockings… such a striking choice against the softer pastel washes. Curator: Indeed, the deliberate use of colour directs the gaze, focusing on limbs actively prepared for display. Think about how the depiction contrasts with later artists who celebrated, perhaps overly celebrated the figure of the dancer such as Matisse. Editor: For me, it really sparks thoughts about ambition versus constraint and how art gives us those little frozen moments to pull apart, ponder and put back together in a different light. Curator: A complex intersection indeed captured with such seeming simplicity.