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Degas and his dance images as a form of New Media journalism
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Degas and his dance images as a form of New Media journalism
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Content
DEGAS AND HIS DANCE IMAGES AS A FORM OF NEW MEDIA
JOURNALISM
by
Adriana Trenev
A Professional Project Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
MASTER OF ARTS
BROADCAST JOURNALISM
May 2008
Copyright 2008 Adriana Trenev
ii
TABLE OF CONTENTS
LIST OF FIGURES ------------------------------------------------------------------------------iii
ABSTRACT --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- iv
DEGAS AND HIS DANCE IMAGES AS A FORM OF NEW MEDIA
JOURNALISM-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------1
WORKS CITED --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 27
iii
LIST OF FIGURES
1. Ballet Class, 1881, Oil on Canvas --------------------------------------------------------- 19
2. Ballet Rehearsal on Stage, approx. 1870s, Oil on Canvas ----------------------------- 20
3. Dance Class, 1874, Oil on canvas --------------------------------------------------------- 21
iv
ABSTRACT
Throughout the history of journalism, there has been an argument between
complete objectivity versus including a clear perspective in journalistic news pieces.
New Media journalism takes the idea of journalism articles written with a clear and
defined perspective and places them within the realm of today’s technology.
Examples of New Media journalism would be blogging, photo journalism, video
journalism, digital art journalism etc.
As a member of the French Impressionist group, which was known for
eschewing the rules of the formal, established Art Academy in France, Edgar Degas
created a unique series of dancer images taken from his own experiences studying
the Paris ballet. His paintings represent a clear and defined point of view and reveal
hidden aspects of the dancers’ world. Because Degas worked to expose these
elements of the Paris ballet by using diverse and engaging techniques in his
paintings, he could be classified as a new media journalist for his time.
1
DEGAS AND HIS DANCE IMAGES AS A FORM OF NEW MEDIA
JOURNALISM
Joseph Pulitzer once described the attributes of effective journalism this way:
“Put it before them briefly so they will read it, clearly so they will appreciate it,
picturesquely so they will remember it and, above all, accurately so they will be
guided by its light.” This description could just as easily be applied to a compelling
painting that makes a studied and deliberate commentary on its society. Journalism
may not always qualify as art, but some forms of art might very well qualify as a
type of journalism.
Today, impressionist artworks are commonly viewed as pretty paintings on a
museum wall, yet few recognize the hidden political and social messages embedded
within them. These paintings represent a form of both visual and opinion journalism
not unlike modern photojournalism and new media. They also fulfill certain
characteristics that journalism as a field calls for such as studied commentary on
society and heartfelt, honest disclosure of the events a journalist witnesses.
Journalists today are grappling with retaining readership and keeping their
reporting fresh. One convincing argument for how to do this is the new media
journalism movement, which advocates reporting from a clear viewpoint rather than
complete objectivity. According to Dallas Morning News reporter and blogger
Joshua Benton, “Blogging and new media journalism are a return to a rawer form of
communication for journalists, it’s more like telling a story to a friend rather than
2
reading a dry and forgettable article in a newspaper.”
1
If sharing a story with a
unique perspective qualifies a piece of journalism as new media, then Degas’ dance
images might well have been the antecedents to this movement today.
Artists from about 1850 to the early 1900s were grappling with how to
represent their changing society and social mores, and so, their own modern values,
beliefs, and sensibilities about their changing society were suddenly appearing in
their artwork. According to USC Journalism professor Larry Pryor, “The whole
impressionist movement has in a way led to internet-style graphic representation of
ideas. The impressionists might have been ahead of their time in that their artwork
should be the way modern journalism is going: faithful, authentic representations of
reality through the lens of a person observing and making opinions about that
reality.”
2
Edgar Degas’ dance images qualify as forms of new media journalism,
especially modern graphic journalism, because Degas faithfully represents what he
sees in addition to “reporting” from his own perspective and opinions. Degas makes
a negative commentary about the Paris ballet through his superficial and
psychological rendering of the people and physical spaces that comprise the dance
studio.
1
Joshua Benton, Personal interview, 26 March 2008.
2
Larry Pryor, Personal interview, 18 Feb. 2008.
3
Because Degas’ paintings moved away from the idea of complete objectivity
or a simple pretty painting on a wall, Degas challenges the social trend by
representing these young dancers and including his opinions about them in his work.
One example of Degas’ inserted beliefs are the allusions he makes to the voyeuristic
and in some ways prostitution-like sexual escapades that were going on behind the
scenes with the dancers and the wealthy older patrons who constantly watched the
dancers from the sidelines.
Through figure distortion, inclusion of prominent characters central to the
scene, and depiction of the women as a type, rather than individuals, Degas makes a
compelling social commentary on the world he observed and knew quite intimately
from his close friendships with the dancers. He went against the artistic trend in his
decision to paint lower working class women as his main subjects. Not unlike a
modern journalist today, on the internet or otherwise, Degas had a personal
investment in revealing to the public the secret life backstage at the Paris Ballet.
If Degas were alive today, his work could certainly translate to new media
blogging because he is revealing the flaws of an accepted social institution in a clear
way and from his own perspective. Perhaps his paintings would comprise a blog that
constantly revealed the abuses of the Paris ballet that were happening backstage
unbeknownst to the audience or supporters.
Not unlike the Perez Hilton style of blogging popular today, Degas has found
a way to criticize a social institution in a way that was socially engaging and
4
garnered him an audience. “Because a blog is a more freer, more interesting mode of
journalistic communication, it will go on to be remembered for years and years to
come, while a newspaper article will be forgotten almost the moment after it was
read because there is no opinion or life to the story,” said Benton.
3
During the latter half of the 1800s, otherwise known as the period of the
Impressionists in France, a group of artists was starting to rebel against the accepted
form of art, which glorified the nobility of society and had strict rules regarding how
a piece of art should be created. If an artist defied these conventions, his art was
laughed at and refused admission to the one event that would make or break his
career, an event where the public came to see the great Academie artists of the
moment, the Salon des Beaux-Arts. “The Salon, held annually in the Palais de
l’Industrie, a huge exhibition center in the Champs-Elysees, was the social event of
the year. During the first two weeks of May, some 3,000 visitors crowded into the
Champs-Elysees and queued to see the show,” according to Sue Roe, author of “The
Private Lives of the Impressionists.”
4
For an artist, this meant his entry into the art
world, if his painting was placed in the right area and he received a favorable review
of his work.
However, the impressionists recognized the aging value of this kind of formal
institution that had strict guidelines as to both the subject matter and techniques
3
Benton.
4
Sue Roe, The Private Lives of the Impressionists (New York: Harper
Collins, 2006) 7-8.
5
appropriate for serious works of art. “The values of the Institut de France, therefore,
permeated every level, even determining acceptable subjects for painting. Prime
positions at the Salon were occupied by paintings of historical, mythical, or biblical
subjects depicting edifying moral lessons, or celebrating la glorie de la France,”
according to Roe.
5
Yet, the tide was about to change.
A similar struggle has been happening in the world of journalism where there
is a desire to move towards less objectivity and more opinion, perspective-driven
pieces. Just like the art establishment in France had specific rules and accepted ways
for how things were done, the journalism industry has set, some might even say
antiquated, rules, as well.
Yet, there are reporters who are working to change the face of modern
journalism. According to Benton, there is an excellent example for this kind of social
push and pull. “William Blake, a revolutionary artist and poet from the 1700s is still
remembered and loved today by the public, yet few think back to his more ‘by the
book’ contemporary Sir Joshua Reynolds, one of the best known artists of his day. In
fact, Blake once wrote of Reynolds that, ‘this man was hired to depress art.’”
6
Just as
visionaries in the 1700s recognized the need to think outside of the box, Degas saw
the antiquated ways of the Academy as a doorway to the past and not the future.
5
Roe 8.
6
Benton.
6
The impressionist era during the late 1800s and early 1900s in France was a
time of great social change. Modernization of the city was beginning with
Haussmannization, or the work of the new prefect, Georges Haussmann. “In 1860,
Paris was still a medieval city, with dark, moldering, rat-infested streets, and no
efficient sewage system,” said Roe. “But in 1853, Baron Haussmann had been
elected Prefect of the Seine. He immediately began making plans to transform the
city,” stated Roe.
7
Haussmann was essential in the transformation of Paris from
medieval, antiquated city, to the modern city we know today. He laid down new
streets, created new districts, and formed areas for social mingling within the city.
This increased “see and be seen” mentality of the new Paris fomented most of the
Impressionist artists’ desire to capture the everyday life that was now teeming in
their changed city.
Along with the city’s superficial improvements, many aspects of modern
society were changing. The general attitude toward the established lifestyle began to
change when the works of such society critics like author Emile Zola began to
surface. The bohemian lifestyle and acknowledgement of the lower and middle
classes began to gain ground, as discontented artists, academics, and the like
questioned the establishment. Impressionist artists were a part of this social
movement, and they also took on these new beliefs about life, social classes, and
government, which made a direct appearance in their work.
7
Roe 6.
7
The group of Impressionists began to form with Monet, Pisarro, Cezanne,
Renoir, Manet, and, of course, their friend, the bohemian author, Emile Zola. These
young artists and bohemian visionaries began to see the tremendous life and value of
representation in the ordinary lower and middle classes. “In the café, women of the
night mingled with students, the dancers sang along with the band, and a mouse ran
around under everyone’s feet […] Manet sat around making caricatures of them
all.”
8
Other Impressionist artists were also starting to see the value in capturing the
beauty of everyday, ordinary life. “This was the kind of thing he wanted to paint,
Bazille told Renoir, as they passed a baby crying crossly in its pram, while its nurse,
behind a tree, flirted with a soldier: glimpses of ordinary life. ‘The big classic
compositions are finished,’ he said, ‘an ordinary view of daily life would be much
more interesting.’”
9
With these ideals in mind, Impressionist artists set out to capture the ordinary
life everyone saw but the representative aspects of society (art, writing, etc.) were
ignoring. Along with this interest in ordinary life and middle class people, for some
artists, came an interest in the social world they belonged to. Because impressionists
were suddenly turning their attention toward the common man, and eschewing the
ideals and conventions of the accepted and the nobility, they were in fact performing
8
Roe 14-15.
9
Roe 24.
8
a type of journalism in that they were representing the oft-forgotten everyday man or
woman and shedding light on valid members of their society.
One of the later French Impressionists, Edgar Degas, agreed with this ideal of
painting the lower and middle classes of his society, yet he approached their
representation with his own background and values as a creative filter. Many of his
dancer paintings, which he is probably most well known for, illustrate that world as
Degas himself saw it. “Degas is constructing the dancers in a way that no one else
could have constructed them, in that he is filtering their representation through
societal and personal predilections, and there is definitely a strong subjective quality
to his work,” said Steve Zucker, an art history professor at the Fashion Institute of
Technology at SUNY.
10
His colleague, art history professor Beth Harris, added, “Degas showed
women in ways that were different than the conventional, accepted images of the
Academy, and Degas was much less of a misogynist than his counterparts.”
11
Zucker
countered, “Much of Degas’ strength is in his ambiguity and in his way of
understanding a historical moment, he demonstrates a sense of process rather than a
strident fully-formed argument.”
Much like new media bloggers today, Degas’ opinion was used in his
approach to painting the dancers, yet he left many questions unanswered for the
10
Steve Zucker, Personal interview, 26 Feb. 2008.
11
Beth Harris, Personal interview, 26 Feb. 2008.
9
viewer to come to his or her own conclusions. He laid out his observations very
clearly, and infused many of them with his own opinions. Yet, he relied heavily on
the viewer to make a judgment call as to what his actual message was. Degas’
opinions about the Paris ballet included that it was an ugly institution that forever
changed the lives of the dancers in a negative way.
The important aspect of Degas’ representations is that he not only strove to
create a narrative or a story-telling of what he saw, he wanted to re-create that world
for the viewer and, in some ways, share his opinions. These opinions and
perspectives allow Degas to cross-over into a form of new media journalism:
blogging. According to Benton who feels that blogging is just a more effective form
of traditional narrative, “I think blogging and narrative share a lot more in common
than we think.” He also says that blogging is in many cases just a more candid and
interactive way to share a story because it does have that human element.
Much like Degas’ decision to share his opinions in his artwork by tampering
with and in some ways, exaggerating the representation of his dancers, new media
journalists are also pushing the boundaries and simultaneously expanding the
definition of journalism. One such example is Perez Hilton, a celebrity journalist and
blogger, who chronicles the lives and happenings of famous people. He posts
pictures of them, usually candid paparazzi shots, and then scribbles over a section of
the image with his thoughts on the person or the action. Something as simple as this
is now being called new media journalism.
10
Hilton is chronicling his opinions of these people in very plain visual terms,
yet this visual scribbling over a photograph is what makes him a journalist. Below
these images, Hilton will usually include a brief and casual analysis of what he
thinks of the story or sighting, in a way, interpreting the photo for his viewers and/or
readers. Perez Hilton and Degas, in a way, employ similar devices to get their point
of views across on certain pop culture happenings. This is the face of new media
journalism: opinion-driven and visually oriented.
According to Pryor, this is what the journalism world of today is moving
towards. The notion of complete objectivity is dying out, but on the other hand, says
Pryor, blog-ranting does not qualify as journalism. But, what does, and what is most
effective is this idea of presenting individual observations in a somewhat cohesive
way and hoping that will affect the viewer or reader, said Pryor. The new journalism,
“gives them a chance to create an ‘as if’ world and let the audience engage with it. It
doesn’t have to be coercive, it can be observational, and it can raise a problem
objectively. Degas raised the problem of the exploitation of the dancers,” explained
Pryor.
12
In accordance with Pryor’s ideas about new media journalism, Degas imbued
his paintings with messages based on personal opinions reflecting his own
complicated, yet progressive, beliefs about the female gender. His beliefs, in part,
were formed from close associations with his female family members, as well as his
12
Pryor.
11
time spent building friendships with the famous Parisian dancers and learning about
their difficult lifestyle.
Degas scholar and art historian, Norma Broude, claims, “[Degas’] female
relatives, including two sisters and several aunts and cousins, were the sitters for
many of his early portraits, works of great psychological acumen, which often
convey the peculiar tensions and problems of personality that might have resulted,
either directly or indirectly, from the sitters’ positions as women in their society.”
13
Broude continues, “Although Degas’ mother died in 1847 when he was thirteen
years old, his large family provided a number of female figures to whom he could
relate in his youth and whom he seems to have observed with extraordinary
sympathy and understanding.”
14
Because of the way Degas depicted his female relatives, he was acutely
aware of the societal prejudices and problems women faced in his society. He
possessed this awareness because of his relationships with his female family
members. This understanding allowed Degas to pursue honest friendships with the
dancers. Degas’ situation is not unlike that of many journalists who come up against
a problem or realize a particular social injustice through a friend or family member,
and then seek to create a general understanding in the public of this issue.
13
Norma Broude, "Degas’ Misogyny," The Art Bulletin March 1977: 97.
14
Broude 97.
12
One of Degas’ own contemporaries, Georges Riviere, observed that Degas
did not depict women with flattery according to the Academie’s rigorous definitions
yet, “Degas enjoyed the company of women. He, who often depicted them with real
cruelty, derived great pleasure from being with them, enjoyed their conversation, and
produced pleasing phrases for them.”
15
Ironically, another Impressionist painter, Renoir, who was known for his
beautiful paintings of women and young girls, believed that women were no more
than a pretty face and only had a place in the home as a mother, or as a dancer on the
stage. “Unlike Renoir, Degas with his uncompromisingly contemporary images of
women—seen at their toilette or at their work in theaters, laundries, millinery shops
or brothels—stripped away idealized conventions, thereby challenging some of the
most cherished myths of his society,” said Broude.
16
In a way, Degas’ “stripping away of idealized conventions,” is just what new
media bloggers are trying to do. They are trying to bring the journalism industry
forward and make it more progressive by using this opinion-oriented blogging as one
of many more modern forms of communication. Benton says, “It features characters,
not just sources, and those characters have sort of depth… they’re recognizable and
identifiable human beings… it gives the reader a sense of place and time and
15
Broude 97.
16
Broude 97.
13
drama.”
17
Based on Benton’s description, many of these blogging elements can be
seen in Degas’ dance paintings because he does create the full story for the viewer.
In addition to Degas’ story telling, he also wanted to alert the public to the
issues women in his time faced. There is significant evidence that Degas wanted to
change the societal perception of women by using some of his paintings that paid
attention to mythical and historical subjects, “He presented, in historical terms,
possibilities for female independence, and he extolled the creative powers of
women—intellectual and artistic rather than biological,” said Broude.
18
Not only did Degas have the desire to expose institutions that took advantage
of women, he also tried to understand their unique place in society through his
relationships with them. The mark of any good journalist is how well he or she gets
to know his sources and the background or context of the story. Degas did immerse
himself in the lives of his subjects, just as a good investigative journalist would. He
spent hours living with, studying, and observing the female dancers, who were to
represent a sizable portion of his artwork. According to Degas scholars, Jill
DeVonyar and Richard Kendall, “After two decades of drawing and painting
dancers, a lonely fifty-one year old Degas confessed to his sculptor-friend that his
heart had been stolen, not by any one dancer in particular, but by a collective of the
17
Benton.
18
Broude 101.
14
hard-working, gravity-defying, and sometimes socially-questionable women who
dominated his art.”
19
By painting these women in a way that was, at that time, considered to be
extremely unflattering, Degas painted with a keen attention to his perspective on the
Paris ballet. When he painted these women in their rehearsals, they became a part of
the ugly institution, and took on their own “ugly” persona as an animalistic type.
When Degas’ paintings were exhibited to the public, people were outraged at the
subtle “ape-like” representation of the dancers, according to Callen. Today, because
there is no acute public awareness of an established art academy’s standards for
female representation, it is not something one would readily notice in Degas’
paintings.
Broude calls Degas’ dancers, “those hard-working, determined street-urchin
ballerinas whose social origins Degas never lets us forget.”
20
Degas focuses on the
dancers’ social origins because he wants to show that as a part of the lower working
classes, there are no other options for these girls. They are used both by society and
the institution of the Paris Ballet. Like a good journalist should, Degas hoped to
inspire a social dialogue in the public when they viewed his paintings, because he
wanted to demonstrate the evils of a commonly accepted practice.
19
Jill DeVonyar and Richard Kendall, Degas and the Dance (New York:
Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 2002) 195.
20
Broude 105.
15
Callen notes that one of the critics who was at a public viewing for Degas’
Little Dancer wax sculpture commented, “The bourgeois admitted to contemplate
this wax creature remain stupefied for a moment and one hears fathers cry: ‘God
forbid my daughter should become a dancer.’”
21
Callen continues, “The effect,
therefore, was cathartic—perhaps akin to that of eighteenth-century sublime art,
where ‘dangerous and conflicting feelings were lived so that they may be purged.’”
22
Degas knew the psychological effect his artwork would have on contemporary
society if he rendered these beautiful dancers as even slightly ‘ape-like,’ and he also
wanted the public to be forced to think about uncomfortable issues, rather than
simply looking at beautiful paintings.
During the impressionist era, the fields of anthropology, criminology, and
zoology were starting to heavily influence the artistic world. So much so that critics
at the time were describing Degas’ dancer sculptures as suitable for displays in
natural history museums, “but in a museum of fine art, forget about it!”
23
According
to Degas scholar Anthea Callen, “that Degas was consciously exploring monkey and
other animal physiognomies as scientific signifiers of low class Parisiennes at this
21
Anthea Callen, The Spectacular Body (New Haven: Yale University Press,
1995) 28.
22
Callen 29.
23
Callen 22.
16
period, is reinforced by the frequency with which such analogies were made by the
reviewers.”
24
Degas was consciously trying to distort the images of these girls in a way that
would still be recognizable to his society and simultaneously reveal his opinions on
the institution to his viewers. Like new media journalists today Degas pushed the
acceptable artistic boundaries and did this by mixing his art with current cultural
trends to get the public thinking about important issues. Degas saw the potential of
these dancers, who were in many cases young girls, and Degas probably believed
that women deserved better occupations than this one. They were usually in the age
range from 11 to 16 years old and were from middle class to lower working class
families. Many were counted on by their families to bring in extra income from
dancing, and many even had explicit sexual relations with the wealthy, older male
patrons.
Instead of painting a bucolic and beautiful scene from nature like most artists
of his time, Degas’ artwork became a form of journalism when he chose to show a
real institution and its problems in a candid way. A well-known poet and journalist,
James Fenton, discusses in his book “All the Wrong Places,” the historical origins of
journalism and how we have strayed from them, according to Benton. Benton
continues, “This natural state of reporting didn’t have any of the conventions of
modern journalism. It was raw storytelling. Journalism becomes unnatural when it
24
Callen 22.
17
strays too far from such origins.”
25
This natural state of journalism is precisely what
new media bloggers are trying to get back to: evoking public awareness in a relevant
and meaningful way.
Referencing the earlier mentioned William Blake versus Sir Joshua Reynolds
example, Benton using this idea to show how blogging has become like a rebel form
of journalism, in that is trying to modernize the field and move it forward. According
to Benton, “Reynolds was the best known painter of his day. He was the embodiment
of the Establishment. He was also pretty boring.” Benton continues, “He thought the
definition of genius as an artist was perfect imitation of those who came before. In
other words, he was dull and conventional. And today, he’s almost completely
forgotten.”
26
William Blake’s life and career, in contrast, are still remembered and loved
today. His work lasted through the generations and still resonates with people.
“Blake was basically an unknown during his lifetime. He was a political radical,
fighting against the slave trade and for complete racial and sexual equality,” says
Benton. He continues, “Unlike Reynolds, Blake is remembered to this day. Bob
Dylan and Allen Ginsburg considered his poetry as major influences, and R. Crumb
and Maurice Sendak cite his paintings in the same way.”
27
25
Benton.
26
Benton.
27
Benton.
18
Degas lasting legacy might also be attributed to the subversive elements in
his artwork. Because Degas was also willing to challenge the establishment, perhaps
that was what made his art so trans-generational. This same subversive quality of
blogs and challenging the conventional, the accepted is possibly what makes them
resonate with modern readers today and allows the writing to stay with them. In this
sense, Degas does qualify as a new media journalist because his work employs a
clear perspective and challenges the accepted norm for his time.
As an illustrative example of how Degas’ work would qualify as visual
journalism, I have included several images from Degas’ dance oeuvre that are
particularly representative of the journalistic aspect of Degas’ studies and paintings.
These paintings are: Fig. 1. Ballet Class (1881), Fig. 2. Ballet Rehearsal on Stage
(approx. 1870s), and Fig. 3. Dance Class (1874). All three are oil on canvas, and
each painting features the dancers while performing.
One of the most prominent staples of the Paris ballet world after the dancers
was the male patron (Fig. 1). The placement of these patrons suggests to the viewer
that these men not only have a professional relationship with the dancers, but also a
sexual one. This message is communicated by the voyeuristic positioning of the
patrons (they are on the sidelines of the stage while the dancers are rehearsing or
performing), and the faces of these patrons are always blurred, further ensconcing
them in their secretive yet powerful viewing of the female dancers.
19
Fig. 1. Ballet Class, 1881, Oil on Canvas
In Ballet Rehearsal on Stage (Fig. 2), a patron is seated on the lower right
side of the stage, and Degas’ unique perspective tells the viewer that he is painting
from the wings on the other side of the stage. “[In this painting] Degas has arrived as
an utterly original painter of the dance… These pictures are unprecedented in their
20
Fig. 2. Ballet Rehearsal on Stage, approx. 1870s, Oil on Canvas.
marshaling of deep space and in their bold, intrusive viewpoints,” said DeVonyar
and Kendall.
28
In offering the viewer this unique perspective, Degas takes on the role
of a kind of new media journalist for his age, as he is exposing the public to a
previously unknown world.
From this vantage point, Degas can readily see the patrons, who are all
watching the dancers, on the other side of the stage. In his painting, Degas includes
these patrons, who are all wearing a conspicuous black coat and top hat. Degas’
28
DeVonyar and Kendall 58.
21
Fig. 3. Dance Class, 1874, Oil on canvas.
placement of this patron and his shrouded obscurity reveals Degas’ awareness of this
patron’s voyeuristic status in this dance world. The dancers appear to be caught up in
their own world rehearsing. The psychology of this image reveals Degas’ unique
22
perspective of the dance world that he was able to attain as friend and artist. It sets
this painting apart as something more than a pretty painting; it makes it a distinct
social observation and commentary.
In The Ballet Class (Fig. 3), we see the instructor obscured by practicing
dancers, as well as a prominent caretaker in the foreground. She is reclined in a
chair, reading the newspaper, presumably while her dancer charge practices. Degas’
candid representation of the psychological weight these nannies had on the dancers
they supervised is shown by the woman’s front and center positioning, as one of the
main themes of the piece. Degas showed a remarkable attention to the tremendous
pressure the dancers were under to secure additional income for their families and
made sure to include this in one or another into his artistic pieces. In Dance Class,
the caretakers’ presence is less conspicuous but still noticeable, as several figures are
sitting in the back right of the painting, watching the girls dance.
The elderly dance instructor, Jules Perrot, has a prominent role in the Dance
Class and is shown motioning to the girls, standing amongst them, and constantly
watching. “Although not formally employed at the rue Le Peletier theater, it seems
that Perrot often taught classes there during the last phase of his career—and
privately coached principal ballerinas,” according to DeVonyar and Kendall. Degas
23
had a friendship with Perrot and wanted to include this important character in the
dance world, rather than just focusing on the dancers.
29
Even more convincing of Degas’ turn as a new media journalist was the way
he focused on showing these young girls as a type rather than as individual women.
“Although Degas avoided stereotypes when he painted portraits of particular women,
who were usually members of his own circle and class, he was far more inclined to
reduce his subjects to types when he dealt with women of the lower working class”
said Broude.
30
Not unlike Perez Hilton of today who reduces all celebrities down to a
type and makes opinionated commentary about them, Degas used certain creative
means to make his negative opinions about the Paris ballet and by extension, the job
of the dancers, known.
According to Degas expert and art historian Susan Sidlauskas,
Degas tended to make large beautiful pastels of dancers with whom he was
acquainted socially, [they were] more straightforward portraits; the other
dancers are mostly grouped by social class (inferior to his) and look very
much alike. He seems to have had affection for a number of them who were
frequent models, but was mostly interested in what they could represent for
him [on the canvas].
31
Because Degas focused more on the institution rather than the beautiful
individual, this makes his art more of a journalistic commentary than an artistic one.
29
DeVonyar and Kendall 203.
30
Broude 105.
31
Susan Sidlauskas, Personal interview, March 11, 2008.
24
Another way Degas succeeded in transitioning his art from a pretty painting
to social commentary on the times is that the viewer feels present in the scene.
Degas’ perspective allows the viewer to feel like another dancer who is waiting in
the wings or performing alongside her colleagues. In fact, successful blogs perform
this function, as well, according to Benton. Benton says, “Blogs are successful
because people crave the experience. They crave the experience more than they
crave the news. They want to feel present, in the moment. It’s something only these
blogs can provide with their personal tone and their raw, direct line of
communication to the reader.”
32
By documenting the unique tensions these women faced, Degas was offering
a kind of new media journalism in that he was inviting the viewer into the
psychological and physical worlds of these girls that most of the audience probably
did not think about as they watched a ballet being performed on stage.
As a journalist, one should tell a story from a unique perspective and
introduce the public to an idea they haven’t given much thought to, and in his own
way, Degas did this with his dancer series because he revealed a world unknown to
the public. Another tenet of journalism is to, “comfort the afflicted and afflict the
comfortable,” and Degas in his own way was doing this by revealing the backstage
happenings to the aristocracy, who consumed these ballet performances without
realizing what actually happened in the production.
32
Benton.
25
Through his relationships with his journalistic inspirations, he sought to
report or represent what he both understood and observed from what these women
told him. Instead of writing his findings into an article, Degas chose to show them in
a visual way. “[Glance] through the artist’s correspondence, that record of his social
relationships, wherein is revealed not only his ability to relate to women, but also the
important role they played for him—actresses, dancers, painters, musicians, friends,
and the wives of friends—both socially and intellectually, throughout his life,” said
Broude.
33
Broude suggests that Degas kept his “sources” close at hand by
maintaining strong relationships with them. It is this trust and candor that he had
with the young girls and women of the ballet that heavily informed the perspective
and opinions he related in his artwork.
Degas scholar Richard Kendall goes so far as to assert that Degas was a
working journalist and historian by meticulously depicting and, in a way, cataloguing
the women of his time, “More than three-quarters of Degas’ total output of paintings,
drawings, pastels, prints, and sculptures are images of women… He aspired to an
encyclopedic representation of the women of his metropolitan world.”
34
In the case of Degas’ dancer stories, he has succeeded not only in leaving an
oeuvre of meticulously crafted paintings, but by offering a unique and memorable
33
Broude 107.
34
Kendall, Richard and Griselda Pollack, Dealing with Degas:
Representations of Women and the Politics of Vision (New York: Universe, 1992)
11.
26
viewpoint that will last through the ages. As Benton says, “the type of story-telling
that stays with us is the one with a human connection and a unique perspective.” He
continues, “I quickly realized that reader reaction to my most boring opinion column
was 10 or 20 times greater than it was to my most interesting news story. People
started to see me as someone with a pulse… they felt engaged in real human
communication.”
35
And, perhaps, Degas’ dancer images resonate with their viewers
because they do inspire that human dialogue that art viewers and newspaper readers
alike, crave.
35
Benton.
27
WORKS CITED
Armstrong, Carol. Odd Man Out: Readings on the Work and Reputation of Edgar
Degas. Los Angeles: Getty Publications, 2003
Benton, Joshua. Telephone interview. 26 March 2008.
Broude, Norma. “Degas’ Misogyny.” The Art Bulletin March 1977: 95-107.
Callen, Anthea. The Spectacular Body. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1995.
Christiansen, Rupert. Paris Babylon: The Story of the Paris Commune. New York:
Penguin Books, 1996.
Clark, T.J. The Painting of Modern Life. Princeton: Princeton University Press,
1999.
DeVonyar, Jill, and Richard Kendall. Degas and the Dance. New York: Harry N.
Abrams, Inc., 2002.
Harris, Beth. Telephone interview. 26 Feb. 2008.
Kendall, Richard. and Griselda Pollack. Dealing with Degas: Representations of
Women and the Politics of Vision. New York: Universe, 1992.
Pryor, Larry. Telephone interview. 18 Feb. 2008.
Roe, Sue. The Private Lives of the Impressionists. New York: HarperCollins, 2006.
Sidlauskas, Susan. E-Mail interview. 11 March 2008.
Zucker, Steve. Telephone interview. 26 Feb. 2008.
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Asset Metadata
Creator
Trenev, Adriana
(author)
Core Title
Degas and his dance images as a form of New Media journalism
School
Annenberg School for Communication
Degree
Master of Arts
Degree Program
Journalism (Broadcast Journalism)
Publication Date
04/25/2008
Defense Date
04/01/2008
Publisher
University of Southern California
(original),
University of Southern California. Libraries
(digital)
Tag
blogger,dance,Degas,impressionism,OAI-PMH Harvest,Paris
Language
English
Advisor
Muller, Judy (
committee chair
), Accampo, Elinor (
committee member
), Kotler, Jonathan (
committee member
)
Creator Email
trenev@usc.edu
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https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-m1194
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etd-Trenev-20080425.pdf
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59774
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Thesis
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Trenev, Adriana
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texts
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University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses
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Tags
blogger
dance
Degas
impressionism