Danseuse russe

Danseuse russe is one of the late works in which Degas reworked the dancer motif with ever bolder simplification, as his eyesight declined and his colour grew more luminous. Executed in pastel over charcoal on tracing paper about 1899, it belongs to a small series devoted to a figure in folk costume — a subject that also absorbed him in sculpture, which he modelled and reworked over years. The series stands as a culminating statement of his lifelong fascination with the ballet and the stage.