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Edgar Degas (French, 1834–1917). Ballet Scene. 1907. Pastel on greenish transparent tracing paper. Chester Dale Collection. Image © Board of Trustees, National Gallery of Art. Washington, DC.

By the time Degas painted this pastel, he was already nearly blind, using broader strokes to convey the movement with which he had been obsessed for most of his life. Here, the limbs of the ballerinas are linked together in flexion and extension, fluttering and fluid in the light of the stage.