French artist Edgar Degas’ first ballerina painting, the monumental “Portrait of Mademoiselle Eugénie Fiocre in the Ballet ‘La Source,'” is now on view at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.
Ballerinas were a subject that was to preoccupy the artist for the remainder of his career. The oil on canvas, one of Degas’ first masterpieces, is from the collection of the Brooklyn Museum. It measures 51½ by 571/8 inches.
The work was painted for the 1868 Salon de Paris. Degas combined for the first time in his work the narrative content, large scale and complexity of history painting with the representation of modern life †in this instance, the ballet.
Degas (1834‱917) depicts the famous ballerina in a rehearsal break for an elaborate production with exotic costumes and sets that also included onstage bodies of water and live horses. Though mostly forgotten today, it was so highly regarded in its time that it was chosen as one of the works performed at the gala opening of the magnificent Paris Opera House in 1875. The long and complicated Orientalist fantasy concerned the many adventures of a Georgian princess, played by Mlle Fiocre.
“This loan is most appropriate to VMFA’s Paul Mellon collection, not only because of our marvelous assemblage of many of his best paintings and sculptures, but also because VMFA’S unique wax, ‘Horse at a Trough’ †Degas’ earliest known sculpture †most likely served as a miniature model for the horse in the painting,” said Dr Mitchell Merling, VMFA’s Paul Mellon curator and head of the department of European art.
“In the VMFA gallery, the wax of ‘Horse at a Trough’ is displayed in a case adjacent to the painting so that they are easy to compare,” Merling said. “Horse at a Trough” stands 7¾ inches tall and was executed circa 1866‶8.
In the same case, visitors will see a Degas bronze of “Horse at a Trough” cast in about 1919′1. It stands 5½ inches tall.
In an adjacent gallery, another ballet-related standout from the VMFA collection of Degas’ works, the well-known “Little Dancer Aged Fourteen,” 1881, is displayed prominently. The bronze sculpture, which stands 38½ inches tall, is dressed in a net tutu and a satin hair ribbon.
“Portrait of Mademoiselle Eugénie Fiocre in the Ballet ‘La Source”‘ will remain on view at VMFA through November 2.
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts is at 200 N Boulevard. For information, 804-340-1400 or www.vmfa.museum .
