Swaying Dancer (Dancer in Green)

In the spring of 1886 this pastel went up in pride of place in a house in West Hampstead, in north London. It belonged to Walter Sickert, a young English painter who had met Degas in Paris three years earlier and admired him without reservation. He most likely bought it through Charles Ephrussi, a Paris art historian and collector. Shortly before, Sickert's wife Ellen had written to a painter friend that they were delighted Degas was selling, and joked that they might give up the dull necessities of life and buy one of his pictures themselves.

What they bought is a view of the stage from a high side box. One dancer in green turns at the centre, and the others are cut off by the edge of the sheet, left for you to finish in your head.

The second title, Dancer in Green, came from Sickert, the museum says perhaps at Degas's own suggestion. When the marriage ended, the pastel stayed with Ellen's family, who sold it to Paris in 1902.