Ballerina Dancer on Stage The Star Ceramic Vase by Degas 9H

Start your day with a Dance | Degas Ballerina Vase

Dancer on Stage, also known as The Star, is one of Edgar Degas' most famous ballet studies. This Degas Ballerina vase in ceramic adapts that image for a piece you can use every day. The ballerina appears front and center, set against an oval vase shape.

• Degas Art vase is made from kiln-fired ceramic, with a color and gloss finish. (PN SDA11)
• Measures 9 in H x 4 in W x 3 in D. Weight 1.3 lbs.
• Part of the highly collectible Parastone Museum Gifts Collection.
• Adapted from the Silhouette d'Art line, made by Parastone and John Beswick.

By the 1870s, the Paris Opera Ballet had become a favorite subject in French painting. Edgar Degas spent his career studying dancers backstage and in rehearsal. He was drawn to their movement under gaslight, not just their performances. Degas produced roughly 1,500 works on dancers, more than any other subject.

Edgar Degas (1834-1917)
Degas was born in Paris in 1834 to a wealthy banking family. He trained under Louis Lamothe, a follower of Ingres. This shaped his lifelong focus on drawing and line. In his twenties, Degas copied Renaissance paintings at the Louvre. He also traveled through Italy to study art firsthand.

Degas helped organize the Impressionist exhibitions of the 1870s and 1880s. He rejected the label Impressionist for himself. He preferred to be called a Realist or an Independent. After 1875, he increasingly worked in pastel rather than oil. His ballet subjects are best known in this pastel style. Degas died in Paris in 1917.

The image on this vase is from a pastel titled "Ballet". It is also known as L'Etoile (The Star) or Danseuse sur Scene (Dancer on Stage). Degas made it around 1876 to 1877 using pastel over monotype. Some sources give a date of 1878, so treat the year as approximate. The original measures roughly 58 by 42 cm.

The painter Gustave Caillebotte once owned this pastel. It entered the French national collection through his bequest in 1896. Today it hangs at the Musee d'Orsay in Paris, under accession number RF 12258. This ceramic vase is a decorative adaptation of that image. It is not a museum-issued reproduction.

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View Ballet by Edgar Degas at the Musee d'Orsay