Shop art print and framed art L'orchestre de l'Opéra by Edgar Degas

The Opera Orchestra is a painting by Edgar Degas from around 1870. It is 56.5 cm high and 46 cm wide. It is kept at the Musée d'Orsay in Paris. The painting, an oil on canvas measuring 56.5 cm high by 46 cm wide, was painted just before the 1870 war by Edgar Degas. It depicts a group of instrumentalists in the pit of the Salle Le Peletier at the Paris Opera, accompanying dancers from the corps de ballet as they move about the stage. Commissioned by Paris Opéra bassoonist Désiré Dihau, the painting was given to its owner, who exhibited it in Lille, without any further retouching, prompting Degas's family, who until then had been sceptical about the art of their "Raphael", to say: "It's thanks to you that he has finally produced and finished a work, a real painting". According to Henri Loyrette, echoed by other authors, Degas took liberties with the layout of the orchestra by placing the bassoon in the foreground, whereas at the time it was behind the cellos and double basses. Loyrette evokes the pit at the time of François-Antoine Habeneck, who was the conductor of the Paris Opéra until 1848, the director being Léon Pillet. The conductor and director were Edme-Marie-Ernest Deldevez and Émile Perrin respectively in 1868, when Degas painted the picture, and Agnès Terrier points out in her 2003 book on the history of the Paris Opera Orchestra - the cover of which reproduces the painting - that "the arrangement of the musicians [in the painting] is relatively realistic : in [...]

 

This artwork is a painting from the classical period. It belongs to the naturalism style.

 

« L'orchestre de l'Opéra » is kept at Musee d'Orsay, Paris, France.

 

Find the full description of L'orchestre de l'Opéra by Edgar Degas on Wikipedia.