Degas Dance Class Patch

Edgar Degas (French, 1834–1917) painted The Dance Class, one of most ambitious figural compositions, in the mid-1870s. In this beloved painting in The Met collection, some 24 women, ballerinas and their mothers, wait as a dancer executes an attitude for her examination by the ballet master. Degas prepared for this picture with countless drawings executed in his studio while dancers posed for him. A detail of the work appears on our iron-on patch.