The Market for Degas' dancers

The dancers of Edgar Degas (1843 – 1917) are instantly recognisable, their graceful movements and swirling, diaphanous tulle skirts captured on stage and in rehearsal. On the most straightforward level, Degas’ work, particularly his depictions of ballerinas at the Paris Opera, is broadly appealing for its attractive subjects. But the works also appeal to scholars and collectors with a deeper understanding of the cultural milieu in which Degas worked. His ‘dancers’ combine two markers of the Belle-Époque: the popularity of dance-hall and theatre culture, and the observation – voyeuristic at times – of female performers by male patrons, in compositions that are more than merely superficially pretty.

Degas’ modernity is apparent not only in his chronicling of contemporary life, but also in his style, which borrows compositional elements from Japanese prints and the nascent photographic medium. Yet unlike many of the Impressionists, whose work was not widely appreciated and collected until later in their lives – or even after their deaths – Degas was popular among contemporary collectors for his realistic manner; one 1883 critic writing for London’s Magazine of Art, declared that ‘Impressionism is another name for ignorance and idleness’, conceding ‘M. Degas alone excepted’ – praise that would have sat well with the artist, who, despite regularly exhibiting alongside the Impressionists, was reluctant to identify as one. But while Degas’ attractive subjects and realistic manner help explain some of his consistently high performance at auction, the artist benefitted from other factors, which continue to push the prices for his dancers sky-high into the modern day.

During his career, Degas benefitted from a professionally valuable friendship with the American-born Impressionist Mary Cassatt, who was instrumental in introducing him to patrons such as Louisine Havemeyer. Among the works Mrs Havemeyer bequeathed to New York’s Metropolitan Museum in 1929 were 31 Degas, and this was among the factors that helped promote the work of the artist – who had died just a dozen years prior – to an International audience, situating him in the most prestigious context. In Chicago, it was the Potter Palmers who served as the trailblazers and trendsetters, introducing the midwestern elite to Impressionism at soirées in their Gold Coast estate. (The first Impressionist work acquired by Mrs. Palmer, from leading dealer Paul Durand-Ruel in Paris in 1889, was Degas’ On the stage, for which she paid $500.) At her death in 1918, Bertha Palmer bequeathed to the Art Institute what was to become the nucleus of the museum’s world-class Impressionist collection. Over the course of the 20th Century, Impressionist works superseded old masters among many collectors as markers of wealth and status, particularly in America, and such substantial bequests to museums helped to solidify their recognisability and prestige.

Within Degas’ vast extant oeuvre, there are more than 1500 depictions of dancers across a range of media. The extent of the Degas catalogue is such that examples appear on the public market with some frequency, although many of these are smaller works: studies, sketches, and engravings. More highly finished works, which emerge less frequently, tend to realise seven if not eight-figure prices in modern times.

Fifteen of the top twenty prices achieved for works by Degas at auction (75%) were set by pieces representing dancers. Six of these were for sculptures – bronze casts of the same sculpture, in fact – his most enduringly popular work, the Petite danseuse de quatorze ans (the original wax model for which is in the National Gallery in Washington, D.C). A cast of this work set the artist’s auction record in 2022, achieving $41.6 million, although its significant provenance (consigned as part of the Anne H. Bass collection) will have added to its appeal. The other nine dancers in the artist’s top 20 prices were a mix of pastel and gouache rather than the oils favoured by the other Impressionists. Although Degas did paint in oil, he is perhaps better known for his works in pastel, and those are often prioritised by collectors.

Thanks to a combination of the recognisability, visual appeal and status-signifying qualities in his work, and particularly in his dancers, Degas has remained a blue-chip artist, one whose work can be reliably counted on to appreciate in value over time. Collectors who buy quality pieces in good condition can count on these investments, particularly if they are fresh to the market. For instance, the artist’s Danseuse au repos (c. 1879), which sold at Sotheby’s for $27.8 million in 1999 (28 June 1999, lot 4), fetched $37 million less than a decade later (Sotheby’s, New York, 3 Nov. 2008, lot 14). And fifteen of the artist’s top twenty prices were have been set since the year 2000, demonstrating that the artist’s appeal as a collector’s trophy remains consistent. Dickinson, as a private treaty specialist, does not typically disclose sale prices for the sake of discretion, but among the most significant sales of Impressionist artworks in the gallery’s history are several masterpieces by Degas depicting dancers: Danseuse à la barre, a pastel from circa 1885, and the small bronze Étude de nu pour ‘la Danseuse habillée’ (Étude pour ‘La danseuse de quatorze ans’).

As has been the case with other artists, curatorial attention to Degas in recent years has considered some of the less savoury aspects of his personality, from his alleged antisemitism to his instances of misogyny; the lifelong bachelor once declared ‘I have perhaps too often considered woman as an animal.’ It’s well known among scholars of the period that ballerinas – today, revered and celebrated as artists – were, in the 19th Century, typically young girls from poor families who were regularly coerced into prostitution. These complicating factors are often overlooked by museum-goers, however, who are interested less in Degas’ complex character and opinions (admittedly not at all unusual in his own time) and more in the acknowledged beauty of his compositions. And among private collectors, demand remains consistently high, for the reasons noted above.