Four Dancers at the Bar

After gaining popular fame early in his career with etchings of cancan dancers, Louis-Auguste-Mathieu Legrand turned to the more refined environs of the Paris ballet. In this exquisite print he alternated the poses of the young dancers as he captured them in a moment of exhaustion. The selective use of filmy aquatint and painterly drypoint is truly inspired, as are the calligraphic lines delineating the dancers' skirts. Legrand was so well regarded in his day that the French government awarded him the prestigious Légion d'honneur in 1902.