![]() Principal roles were Eugénie Fiocre, the subject of Degas’ painting, Guglielmina Salvioni, and Louis Mérante. The ballet La Source (The Spring) was composed by Delibes and Minkus, with choreography by Arthur Saint-Léon, and received its world première at the ballet of the Paris Opera on 12 November 1866. This complex cross-genre work was a product of the artist’s intention to paint ‘modern life’, and his previous history painting. The theme of the ballet first appeared in Degas’ Portrait of Mlle Fiocre in the Ballet ‘La Source’, which he painted in about 1867-68. ![]() ![]() Edgar Degas (1834–1917), Portrait of Mlle Fiocre in the Ballet ‘La Source’ (c 1867-68), oil on canvas, Brooklyn Museum, New York, NY. As I have shown, Degas was the first painter to devote any real attention to the ballet, and inspired others to do the same. This overwhelming obsession with dance did not develop until the late 1870s, but dominated his work through the 1880s and on into some of his last paintings. About half of Edgar Degas’ lifetime output is of drawings and paintings of the ballet and its dancers. ![]()
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