オーケストラの楽団員

Degas painted this in 1872, then did something unusual. He had already given it to a friend, and two years later he asked for it back so he could change it. He shaved a few centimetres off each side and added a strip about 20 centimetres high along the top, which lifted the ceiling and opened up the stage. The result sets two worlds against each other. Down in the pit the musicians are seen from behind, dark-suited and solid, painted almost like portraits, while above them the ballet dancers glow in loose, quick strokes under the lights. Degas kept going back to the opera for the rest of his life, less for the ballet than for these odd, sliced views from the front rows.