Two dancers stretch at a practice bar, their skirts and postures rendered in a soft, chalky, almost matte finish. Down in the corner, a plain metal watering can sits quietly, doing more work than it looks like.
What you're looking at
Edgar Degas painted this rehearsal scene in 1877, using oil paint thinned with turpentine and applied almost like watercolor to achieve the chalky, matte surface that defines the whole composition. One dancer stretches with her working leg resting straight along the barre, an unusual and demanding position, while a second dancer, seen from behind, leans over the rail nearby. Like most of Degas's ballet models, neither dancer was ever identified by name.
A watering can and a quiet visual joke
That watering can in the lower corner wasn't just a studio prop for decoration; it was actually used to dampen the studio floor and keep dust down while dancers rehearsed. The Metropolitan Museum's own curators have noted that the bell shape of the second dancer's skirt echoes the shape of that same watering can, a quiet, probably intentional visual joke tying together two very different objects in the same scene. Degas signed his own name directly onto the studio floor's baseboard, close to the can, embedding his signature into the practical architecture of the rehearsal room itself.
The painting has an unusual ownership history as well: Degas reportedly gave this canvas to a friend after ruining an earlier version of the same composition, and it later changed hands again when the collector Louisine Havemeyer acquired it.
One detail to look for
Look at the bell-shaped skirt of the dancer seen from behind, and compare it to the watering can nearby — a small, quiet echo the Met's own curators have pointed out in the painting.
See it at its real size
Our canvas print is labeled against the true size of the original — 75.6 x 81.3 cm — so what you're hanging is honestly scaled to the painting Degas made. Shop the canvas print.