Artwork
The Ballet Scene from Meyerbeer's Opera <i>Robert Le Diable</i>
The Ballet Scene from Meyerbeer's Opera <i>Robert Le Diable</i> is an oil painting by the Impressionist artist Hilaire-Germain Edgar Degas. It dates from 1876 and is held in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum. The oil work portrays a moment from the concluding act of Giacomo Meyerbeer’s Romantic opera *Robert le Diable*.
About this work
Overview
The oil work portrays a moment from the concluding act of Giacomo Meyerbeer’s Romantic opera *Robert le Diable*. Seen from the perspective of the orchestra pit and the front rows of the audience, the canvas captures a chaotic tableau in which resurrected nuns engage in a frenzied, bacchanalian dance, a spectacle that Degas often rendered from the viewpoint of the spectator.
Subject & Meaning
Degas selects the opera’s supernatural climax to explore themes of theatrical illusion and the boundary between performance and reality. By placing the viewer among the audience, he emphasizes the collective experience of spectacle, while the presence of recognizable acquaintances among the spectators hints at the social circles that surrounded the Parisian stage.
Technique & Style
Executed in oil, the composition employs a shallow depth of field, with the foreground figures rendered larger and more detailed than the receding stage.
Executed in oil, the composition employs a shallow depth of field, with the foreground figures rendered larger and more detailed than the receding stage. Contrasting bright stage illumination with deep shadows behind the curtains underscores Degas’s interest in light effects. The work reflects his realist self‑identification, even as its subject matter aligns with the broader interests of the Impressionist milieu.
History & Provenance
Created after Degas’s attendance at a live rehearsal, the painting belongs to a series of stage‑scene works produced in the 1870s. While the exact date of acquisition is not recorded, the canvas entered public collections in the early twentieth century, reflecting the artist’s growing reputation as a chronicler of contemporary Parisian life.
Artist & collection
Artist
Edgar Degas painted dancers, theaters, and backstage life in 19th-century Paris. He made prints like *Sur la Scène* and oil paintings such as *The Ballet Scene from Meyerbeer's Opera Robert Le Diable*. These works show…
