Degas, Edgar (1834-1917)
Arlequin danse (Harlequin dancing)
c.1890
Pastel on paper on cardboard, 52 x 63 cm
Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Buenos Aires
In the mid-1880s, Edgar Degas produced a set of seven pastels and a sculpture dedicated to a singular and picturesque character from the Commedia dell’Arte, the Harlequin. He represented him on stage, accompanied in the background by a group of dancers, in different situations inspired by Les jumeaux de Bergame, a piece composed by Jean-Pierre Claris de Florian in 1782. It is a one-act prose comedy about two brothers (harlequins) in love with the same woman, Rosette (or Coraline), with entanglements that occur due to the physical resemblance between them. The farcical atmosphere in relation to courtship and love has a happy ending, with a double marriage between the elder Harlequin with Rosette, and his younger brother with the female counterpart, Nérine.
Degas began to execute pastels dedicated to this piece in the winter of 1884, so it is likely that he had seen a performance in a Parisian theatre during that year. It is certain that the pastels on this theme that he executed between 1885 and 1886 were inspired by the ballet adaptation made by Charles Nuitter and Louis Mérante in the latter year. The piece was presented at the Théâtre National de l’Opéra, with costumes designed by Ludovic-Napoléon Lepic, music by Théodore de Lajarte and accompaniment by the theatre’s orchestra, conducted by M. Altès. In this version, the male characters were played by women: the role of the Harlequin was played by Mademoiselle Salle (or Sanlaville), a regular dancer at the Opéra (of whom Degas also painted a pastel portrait in 1886, and to whom he dedicated a sonnet), and that of her brother, Mademoiselle Biot. As for the female characters, Rosette was played by another Opera dancer, Mademoiselle Subra (also portrayed on another occasion by Henri Toulouse-Lautrec), and Nérine was played by Mademoiselle Ottolini.
In 1885, the artist attended rehearsals for the piece, and on 12 February 1886, he attended a performance (after its premiere on 26 January), where he also had access to the stage and foyer. This closeness to the performers and the Opera’s corps de ballet during the preparation stage – a habitual working method for the artist from at least 1870 onwards – allowed him to depict the scene from a close, almost intimate point of view. In Arlequin danse (Dancing Harlequin), he portrayed the senior Harlequin in the typical costume with red, blue, yellow and green diamond-shaped patterns, a small hat, a mask and flat shoes, as defined in L. Riccoboni’s History of Italian Theatre, published in Paris in 1731 (instead of respecting the costumes for the work designed by Ludovic-Napoléon Lepic). Beneath this clothing, a female silhouette can be seen, that of Mademoiselle Salle, in front of three dancers who are absorbed in their thoughts, performing the traditional dance steps.
The work belongs to the period when Degas reached his artistic maturity. Throughout the 1880s, his production was characterised by the pastel technique and by compositions with little spatial depth, angles with theatrical effects, shapes reduced to the essential, colour strokes with optical mixtures and representation of movement. This can be seen in Arlequin danse, where he created one of his favourite themes, dancers on stage, without stopping at the details or the finish of the figures, but rather at the idea of movement, in bodies that tense and relax to the rhythm of the dance. Framed in a cut-out space, from a point that allows a view of the ground, the scene is made from fast, intense and colourful lines.
Initially, this work belonged to the collections of Hector Brame, Durand-Ruel and Manigot, all in Paris. In the 1880s, Degas was a regular client of the Durand-Ruel gallery (which had already acquired one of these harlequin pastels in 1884), but the exact date when this piece entered this important collection is uncertain, although it may have been around 1890. Shortly afterwards, the work passed into the hands of the Argentine politician Aristóbulo del Valle, and although there is no data on this acquisition, it may have been commissioned from the artist Eduardo Schiaffino in Buenos Aires, who was studying painting in Paris at the time and advised him on other purchases before his final return in 1891.
The truth is that the work was exhibited in Buenos Aires at the Art Exhibition of the Hume Palace in 1893, on loan from Del Valle himself. After 1896, the year of the politician’s death, some pieces from his collection were exhibited at the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, probably because the director (Schiaffino) sought to promote their purchase for the institution. Around 1900, Arlequin danse was exhibited in room 4 of the Bon Marché (where the Museum was operating at the time), according to the Baedeker, an informative guide of the time, where Schiaffino described it as “the most modernist work in the Museum”. In February of the following year, this pastel was offered for sale in a lot by Del Valle’s widow. Shortly afterwards, the museum bought the work, which formally entered the institution. It remained in room 4 until the Museum moved to the Pavilion, where it was exhibited in room III on the upper floor, starting in September 1911. (Paola Melgarejo | MNBA)