The Star (L'Étoile)
c. 1876–1877 · Pastel over monotype on paper · Musée d'Orsay, Paris
📦 Free shipping on every order — or upgrade to Express ($14.9) at checkout. Most orders arrive in ~4–8 business days (Express 2–4).
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 exhibition-poster edition shows the whole work beneath original typography set in-house. The original is in the public domain.
Details & materials
Shipping & returns
Is this the whole painting, or a crop?
Is The Star (L'Étoile) in the public domain?
What is it printed on?
When was The Star (L'Étoile) painted, and in what medium?
What size works above a sofa or bed?
About this design
The Madten promise
A fine-art print
The same artwork as a clean fine-art print — the image shown large with a minimal caption.
