Grande Arabesque, Third Time

The arabesque is an essential position in classical ballet and features frequently and in many media — particularly sculpture and pastel — in Degas’s work. This bronze is an example of the artist’s probing attempt to depict the pose, in which all parts of the dancer’s body are fully extended. It captures a sequence of movement, revealing, as his equestrian bronzes also do, Degas’s fascination with the stop-action photography of Eadweard Muybridge. Unlike the photographs, however, Degas’s three-dimensional figures explore the full spatial and physical complexity of motion.