''The Orchestra at the Opera'' () is an

oil-on-canvas Oil painting is the process of painting with pigments with a medium of drying oil as the binder. It has been the most common technique for artistic painting on wood panel or canvas for several centuries, spreading from Europe to the rest of ...

painting by the French artist

Edgar Degas Edgar Degas (, ; born Hilaire-Germain-Edgar De Gas, ; 19 July 183427 September 1917) was a French Impressionist artist famous for his pastel drawings and oil paintings. Degas also produced bronze sculptures, prints and drawings. Degas is es ...

(18341917). The musicians depicted in the

orchestra pit An orchestra pit is the area in a theater (usually located in a lowered area in front of the stage) in which musicians perform. Orchestral pits are utilized in forms of theatre that require music (such as opera and ballet) or in cases when incide ...

of the

Salle Le Peletier The Salle Le Peletier or Lepeletier (sometimes referred to as the Salle de la rue Le Peletier or the Opéra Le Peletier) was the home of the Paris Opera from 1821 until the building was destroyed by fire in 1873. The theatre was designed and con ...

the home of the

Paris Opera The Paris Opera (, ) is the primary opera and ballet company of France. It was founded in 1669 by Louis XIV as the , and shortly thereafter was placed under the leadership of Jean-Baptiste Lully and officially renamed the , but continued to be ...

(from 1821 until it burnt down in 1873) are mostly portraits of friends of Degas, foremost among them pictorially the

bassoonist The bassoon is a woodwind instrument in the double reed family, which plays in the tenor and bass ranges. It is composed of six pieces, and is usually made of wood. It is known for its distinctive tone color, wide range, versatility, and virtuos ...

and composer

Désiré Dihau Désiré Dihau (2 August 1833 – 20 August 1909) was a French bassoonist and composer. He was the bassoonist painted by Edgar Degas in ' with the cellist Louis-Marie Pilet seated behind him. Biography Désiré Hippolyte Dihau was born 2 Au ...

(1838–1909), who commissioned the painting, at work on his instrument, and the cellist

Louis-Marie Pilet Louis-Marie Pilet (8 February 1815 – 13 November 1877) was a 19th-century French cellist. Biography Louis-Marie Pilet studied music in Louis-Pierre Norblin's class at the Conservatoire de Paris where he gained a second prize in 1831 then a ...

(1815–1877) on his string instrument.« Dictionnaire des lauréats » in

Constant Pierre Constant Pierre (24 August 1855 – 12 February 1918) was a French musicologist.Robert 2001 Early life and career as a bassoonist Born Constant-Victor-Désiré Pierre in Passy, near Paris, he entered the Conservatoire de Paris in 1878 and stud ...

, ''Le Conservatoire national de musique et de déclamation : documents historiques et administratifs'', Paris,

Imprimerie nationale The Imprimerie nationale (), known also as IN Groupe brand, is a company specialized in the production of secure documents, such as identity cards and passports, and a supplier of public utility identification applications. Owned by the French st ...

, 190
(read online)
on Gallica The painting was handed over, without further retouching possible, to its owner (Dihau), who exhibited it in

Lille Lille ( , ; nl, Rijsel ; pcd, Lile; vls, Rysel) is a city in the northern part of France, in French Flanders. On the river Deûle, near France's border with Belgium, it is the capital of the Hauts-de-France Regions of France, region, the Pref ...

, which made Degas' family, until then doubtful about the art of their "

Raphael Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino, better known as Raphael (; or ; March 28 or April 6, 1483April 6, 1520), was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance. List of works by Raphael, His work is admired for its clarity of form, ease of ...

" : "It is thanks to you that he has finally produced and completed a work, a real painting". Blurring the distinction between portraiture and

genre Genre () is any form or type of communication in any mode (written, spoken, digital, artistic, etc.) with socially-agreed-upon conventions developed over time. In popular usage, it normally describes a category of literature, music, or other for ...

pieces, he painted his bassoonist friend,

, in ''The Orchestra of the Opera'' (1868–69) as one of fourteen musicians in an orchestra pit, viewed as though by a member of the audience. Above the musicians can be seen only the legs and tutus of the dancers onstage, their figures cropped by the edge of the painting. Art historian Charles Stuckey has compared the viewpoint to that of a distracted spectator at a ballet, and says that "it is Degas' fascination with the depiction of movement, including the movement of a spectator's eyes as during a random glance, that is properly speaking '

Impressionist Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by relatively small, thin, yet visible brush strokes, open composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating the effects of the passage ...

'." The painting is the first instance in Degas' work where dancers from the

ballet Ballet () is a type of performance dance that originated during the Italian Renaissance in the fifteenth century and later developed into a concert dance form in France and Russia. It has since become a widespread and highly technical form of ...

appear. He would depict dancers frequently for the rest of his career, and it is for his ballet pictures that he remains best known.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Orchestra At the Opera Paintings by Edgar Degas 1870 paintings Dance in art Musical instruments in art Paintings in the Musée d'Orsay