In his sketch “Waiting to enter the stage”, made by pastel, Degas portrayed the dancers at the moment when the curtain is about to open. The compositional construction of the picture is very peculiar: for some dancers the viewer sees only the legs, in others – only the trunk.
Only one ballerina is fully shown, but she is also in a complicated pose. The angle is also chosen very well: the viewer seems to be treating this girl from above. It is evident that the dancer is completely relaxed, she rests, her head is lowered, and her left hand squeezes her ankle.
It is interesting that in the paintings and drawings Degas, depicting dancers, it is impossible to find the admiration of the artist by pretty girls and the charm of youth. Degas is absolutely impartial and depicts dancers with the same coldness with which the Impressionists looked at the surrounding landscape. For Degas, the play of light and shadow, the shape of human bodies, the methods by which the artist could transmit forms or space were of primary importance.
Degas proved to those who doubted the talents of the younger generation of artists, as the innovator artists not only do not deny the art of drawing, but also set themselves the tasks that can be solved only by the real master of drawing.
