Deux danseuses

Degas spent the 1870s and 1880s backstage at the Paris Opera, watching dancers less in their moments of glory than in the dull stretches around them, waiting, stretching, adjusting a strap. This pair from around 1880 belongs to that long study. What is unusual is where it hangs. It was bought by Jacques Doucet, the Paris couturier who dressed fashionable women and spent his fortune on art, and who admired Degas enough to call on him and buy directly from the studio. Doucet's collection later settled into a townhouse in Avignon. So a very Parisian glimpse of the Opera ballet now lives in the south, among the works of a man who made his money in dresses.