명화 읽는 영어수업 17(발레수업)

1.

1) The painting shows a group of ballerinas practicing in a dance studio, capturing a moment during their ballet class.

2) The ballerinas are stretching, adjusting their positions, and preparing for their dance movements.

3) Besides the ballerinas, the painting includes the ballet instructor overseeing the class and sometimes other figures such as musicians or assistants.

4) Degas uses an off-center composition and a viewpoint that looks as if the viewer is quietly observing from a corner, giving a sense of intimacy and privacy.

5) The viewer feels like a discreet observer, almost like a bystander watching a candid, behind-the-scenes moment of the dancers’ practice.

6) Degas uses Impressionist techniques with loose brushstrokes and natural lighting to create a realistic yet lively impression of the scene.

7) The light highlights the dancers’ forms and movements, while the soft colors create a calm and focused atmosphere.

8) The dancers’ costumes are delicate, light, and flowing, contrasting with the more plain, rough textures of the studio setting.

9) The light casts shadows and reflections that emphasize the grace and fluidity of the dancers’ poses and motions.

10) The painting reveals both the beauty and discipline of ballet, showing the hard work behind the elegant performance.

2.  a.

The Ballet Class is a famous painting by French artist Edgar Degas, created around 1874. It captures a behind-the-scenes look at a ballet rehearsal, a common theme in Degas’s work. Rather than focusing on the performance, Degas was fascinated by the practice, discipline, and everyday routines of ballerinas. The painting reflects his interest in movement, posture, and the human form.
Degas uses soft colors and natural lighting to create a realistic yet delicate atmosphere. The composition feels spontaneous—some dancers are stretching, others are adjusting their posture or simply resting. At the front, the ballet master, Jules Perrot, is giving instructions. Degas’s use of perspective and cropping gives the viewer the feeling of peeking into a private moment, almost like a snapshot.

This work is a prime example of Impressionism, though Degas preferred to be called a realist. His focus on modern life, unusual angles, and movement made his ballet scenes iconic. The Ballet Class not only highlights the grace of dance but also the hard work and imperfections behind it, offering a humanizing and honest look into the lives of performers.

b.

In The Ballet Class, Edgar Degas captures more than a mere rehearsal; he presents a poetic depiction of dedication, grace, and the quiet rigor behind the performance. The painting radiates elegance, not only in the refined gestures of the dancers but also in the delicate balance of light and shadow that bathes the studio. Each figure reflects years of discipline and repetition, essential to achieving the physical and mental control demanded by ballet.

Degas’s artistic aesthetic is marked by naturalism and subtlety. He doesn't glorify the dancers; instead, he offers an honest vignette of their daily effort, positioning them in natural, sometimes awkward poses. Through the juxtaposition of exhaustion and grace, stillness and movement, Degas emphasizes the contrast between the dream of performance and the labor behind it. There’s a quiet introspection in the way the figures are rendered—lost in thought, focused inward, as if unaware of the viewer’s gaze.

What makes this painting especially powerful is its sense of ephemeral beauty and transience. Degas captures fleeting moments with remarkable precision, freezing a gesture, a glance, or a slouch. This lends the work a sense of authenticity—a truthful portrayal of art in the making. The poise of the dancers, even in rest, suggests not perfection, but process—a visual ode to the unseen work that gives rise to art.