The Dancer

1874

Oil on canvas, 142.5 × 94.5 cm. National Gallery of Art, Washington

A young ballet dancer in fifth position on a canvas nearly five feet tall. It was one of Renoir's seven 1874 entries and among the better received.

Her tulle skirt melts into the hazy green background with no hard outline. Letting edges dissolve into light and air was typical of Impressionist painting.
Shown as no. 141, it struck some critics as a weak sketch and others as graceful.
The National Gallery identifies the model as almost certainly the young actress Henriette Henriot.
The centered, full-length pose borrows from formal portraiture, unlike Degas's dancers caught in rehearsal.
It joined the Widener collection and came to the National Gallery in 1942.

The National Gallery notes how young Renoir makes her. She is shown posed in costume, presenting herself to the viewer, not at work.

Themes