The Star (L'Étoile)
c. 1876–1877 · Pastel over monotype on paper · Musée d'Orsay, Paris
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About this work
- Artist
- Edgar Degas (1834–1917)
- Year
- c. 1876–1877
- Medium
- Pastel over monotype on paper
- Original size
- 58 × 42 cm
- Collection
- Musée d'Orsay, Paris
- Movement
- Impressionism
A ballerina alone in the footlights, arms spread and head tilted back as she finishes a step, seen from a box high above the stage so that the boards tip up beneath her and the scenery and the figures waiting in the wings dissolve into a blur. Degas made it around 1876–77 in pastel worked over a monotype, a printed ink base that gives the darks their soft depth. The high viewpoint and the empty foreground owe much to Japanese prints and to his habit of composing from the margins. It was shown at the third Impressionist exhibition in 1877 and bought by the painter Gustave Caillebotte, whose bequest brought it to the French state in 1896. The Musée d'Orsay catalogues it as Ballet, with The Star and Dancer on Stage as alternative titles. It remains among the most reproduced of all Degas's dancers.
This print reproduces the whole work, uncropped, from a high-resolution scan of the original. The original is in the public domain.
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About this design
The Madten promise
An exhibition poster
The same artwork as a gallery exhibition poster — title, artist & date typeset beneath the image on a soft ground.
The full-bleed edition
The painting printed edge-to-edge at its own proportions, filling the whole sheet — and available on gallery-wrapped canvas.
