The Rehearsal is an impressionist painting by the French artist Edgar Degas, whose style is characterized by dynamic, asymmetrical composition and dark color scheme. The painting depicts a scene in the life of a ballet school; some young ballerinas are dancing; others are waiting for their turn. All the elements of Degas’ style, an asymmetric composition, unexpected angles, and active interaction of figures and space, can be observed in The Rehearsal. Degas’ lines are precise and flexible, conveying the movement of ballerinas.
Degas’s compositions always use space and angles in an unusual way. The picture seems to have been painted from under the stairs, and the beholder is watching the action furtively. The canvas is divided diagonally from the bottom left to the top right. In one part, there is a dynamic picture of dancing girls. The other part is a static image of sitting, standing, and not actively moving figures. Such a division of space gives a feeling of seeming impartiality and randomness of the moment, and the picture appears non-staged.
Degas almost always used a naturalistic, gloomy color palette, combining it with light strokes that convey the play of light and form. Fabrics and ballerinas’ skirts look remarkably textured due to the light coming from the window and highlighting the textures. This combination of light and darkness conveys the ballerina’s hard work and the beauty of the dance. Smoothly and wetly painted parts of the painting are combined with dry strokes to unlock the expressive potential of the composition. Degas often used dry or quick-drying materials in combination with oil, which was the best suited to convey the fleeting joys of the performing arts.