Ukrainian Dancers

In the late 1890s dance troupes from Eastern Europe came to Paris and performed at the Moulin Rouge, the Folies-Bergère and a brasserie near Degas's home in Montmartre. He had been drawing ballerinas for almost 40 years, and these dancers were something else, stamping the ground in folk costume with flowers and ribbons in their hair. He spoke of them as Russian dancers, but their dress points to Ukraine, which is how the gallery now names them. In 1899 Julie Manet, the daughter of the painter Berthe Morisot, visited his studio and wrote in her diary that he called these pastels orgies of colour. He drew on tracing paper, so he could flip a figure and reuse it on another sheet. Here he added a strip of paper along the bottom to fit in the lower leg of the dancer nearest to us.