Pencil, 22.8 x 35.6 cm. Musée d'Orsay, Paris.
This murky world of commerce in females indulged in by predatory top-hatted males is illuminated in a fascinating if somewhat lurid way by two anonymous Parisian publications of the 1880s when Degas was at the height of his powers. Ces Demoiselles de l’Opéra published in 1887 and attributed to Un vieil Abonné (‘a long-time season-ticket-holder’) offers a survey of all the female dancers currently active at the new Paris Opera and looks back nostalgically to the 1860s when Degas too began to interest himself in ballet at the old house in the Rue Lepeletier.
The tone of the book is gossipy and mildly lecherous. The Vieil Abonné seems more interested in the physical attractions of the dancers and in the racy details of their private lives than he is in the finer points of their dancing techniques. Mlle Eugénie Fiocre, the only female dancer described in the book and identifiably painted by Degas, is said to have ‘a nose for which an umbrella would be useful’ - Degas’ study of her shows that she had a rather retroussé and exceptionally pretty nose - ‘but what a figure! One should go down on one’s knees in front of it - and behind!’
Ces Demoiselles de l’Opéra vividly conveys the flavour of the flirtatious conversations that Degas enjoyed with his young dancer models. Daniel Halévy, the son of Degas’ old friend Ludovic, noted that when Degas was with dancers he ‘finds them all charming, makes excuses for anything they do, and laughs at everything they say.’