The Ballet Class depicts dancers at the end of a lesson under ballet master Jules Perrot. Perrot and Degas were friends, and Degas painted the dance class in the Paris Opera a year after it burnt down.
More than the stage performance and the limelight, it was the training and rehearsals that interested him. Here the class is coming to an end - the pupils are exhausted, they are stretching, twisting to scratch their backs, adjusting their hair or clothes, an earring, or a ribbon, paying little heed to the inflexible teacher, a portrait of Jules Perrot, a real-life ballet master. Degas closely observed the most spontaneous, natural, ordinary gestures, the pauses when concentration is relaxed and the body slumps after the exhausting effort of practising and the implacable rigour of the class.
The slightly raised viewpoint looking diagonally across the studio accentuates the vanishing perspective of floor boards. Paul Valery wrote: "Degas is one of the very few painters who gave the ground its true importance. He has some admirable floors". This is all the more appropriate for dancers in that the parquet, which was moistened to prevent slipping, is their main work tool. And the ballet master beats time on the floor with his baton.
Ballet Dancer on the Stage
Rehearsal
The Absinthe Drinker