Waiting

Waiting is a pastel on paper by the French Impressionist Edgar Degas datable between 1880–82. It is an early example of the more than 200 pastels, paintings, mixed media drawings and sculptures of ballerinas depicted by Degas from the early 1880s. This work is regarded for its vibrant colouring and steep perspective. The ballerina series follows his earlier studies of both lower and middle class women, where he looked at the moment when they let their public face drop, and pretense gave way to an awareness of the reality of both themselves and their surrounding. With ballerinas he was primarily interested in the contrast between their beauty and grace on stage and the reality of the physical and physiological toil such artifice took on the performers. Of the more than 200 works, only 50 show the dancers performing on stage, the rest are set in rehearsals or capture fleeting, private moments like this. Waiting is an empathetic example, depicting a ballerina accompanied by her chaperone, bent over ostensibly to massage her foot but whose body language indicates a person racked with anticipation before she takes stage. The background is formed from a wide variety of oranges, browns and blacks, while the younger woman is portrayed in pink, blue, and creamy tones which highlight her softness compared to the severity of the older woman. The work is executed with an innovative mixture of subtle (the woman's feet), slashed (the bench) and hatched (the younger woman's dress) strokes.