Orchestra of the Paris Opera/ Edgar Degas

Paris in the early part of 1868 was depicted with increasing activity and originality by artists. Edgar Degas, the most consistent of the "slice of life" painters, spent all of his time in the streets, cafes, theatres and concert halls of the city; noting, sketching and observing with a sharp eye the effervescent activites around him.

The painting 'Orchestra of the Paris Opera' (1868-69) is a fine example of the new theory of composition that the Impressionists were beginning to shape. The figures are caught as though in a photograph, cut off at seemingly random points and standing at odd angles to the artist-a certain influence of the Japanese prints popular at that time. This is a radical departure from the highly stylized, carefully posed and fully framed tableaux of the classical schools.

With great subtlety, Degas has obscured what is usually shown in a theatre and focused on the area reserved for the audience, particularly the orchestra pit. The space is divided into three zones. At the bottom is the public part of the theatre, the area allocated to the audience of the painting as well as the performance. In the centre is the pit where the musicians sit. At the top is the stage, edged by the footlights and filled with headless ballerinas.
An X-ray shows that Degas deliberately cut the canvas at the sides and top. The framing is therefore more radical than he originally intended. The harp, the box and the double bass were added later, linking the pit graphically to the stage. The contrast between the pit and the stage is reinforced by the difference in the treatment of the three zones: studied, precise and detailed, the central area of the pit is a veritable group portrait and accurately depicts the musicians and their instruments. The dancers on the other hand are scarcely sketched in. And yet the orchestra series painted between 1869 and 1876 illustrates the theme of the dance, which was so important in Degas's oeuvre. The subject gradually invaded his work.