Actresses in Their Dressing Rooms (1879–80): Art, History and Details

Actresses in Their Dressing Rooms (1879–80) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Edgar Degas (French, 1834–1917).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Although best-known for colorful paintings and pastels depicting the Paris of his time, Edgar Degas was simultaneously an incredibly innovative printmaker. Created during the artist’s most prolific period in etching, this print depicts two actresses preparing for a performance in adjoining dressing rooms. Degas used the walls, curtains, and artificial lighting within the space to create a dense and mazelike composition.

Object facts

• Title: Actresses in Their Dressing Rooms
• Date: 1879–80
• Creator attribution: Edgar Degas (French, 1834–1917)
• Culture: France
• Type: Print
• Technique: etching and aquatint on Arches laid paper
• Dimensions: Platemark: 15.9 x 21 cm (6 1/4 x 8 1/4 in.); Sheet: 21.6 x 30.5 cm (8 1/2 x 12 in.)
• Collection: PR - Etching
• Department: Prints
• Accession number: 2023.155

A detail from the museum

This print is one of several that Edgar Degas created by etching and printing a plate typically used to create daguerreotypes—a form of early photography.

Collection credit

Severance and Greta Millikin Purchase Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Minder, Nicole, Eric Gillis, Richard R. Brettell, Edgar Degas, and Camille Pissarro. Degas & Pissarro: alchimie d'une rencontre. Exh. Cat. Vevey: Cabinet cantonal des estampes, Musée Jenisch, 1998.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.