Degas: wachten, narratief...

Wachten

 

Waiting is a pastel on paper by the French Impressionist Edgar Degas, completed between 1880–1882. It is an early example of the more than 200 pastels, paintings, mixed media drawings and sculptures of ballerinas depicted by Degas from the early 1880s.^[1] This work is regarded for its vibrant colouring and steep perspective. 

The Long Wait: Best Waiting Paintings - Art State of Mind
https://www.dailyartmagazine.com/best-waiting-paintings/ 

Several of Degas’ more complex paintings of the ballet contain narrative elements, but the one notably narrative painting from his later work is a simpler composition and another enigma: Waiting, a pastel painting from about 1882.

 

 

 This shows two women sat side-by-side on a wooden bench in a corridor or similar area within the ballet of the Paris Opera. The woman on the left is a ballet dancer, who is in full dancing dress. She leans forward and down, grasping her left ankle with her left hand, although she is not looking at that ankle but ahead at the flagstones on the floor.

Sat immediately to the right of the dancer is a woman wearing black street clothing, holding an unrolled black umbrella, and with black walking or working shoes. She wears a black hat and a full length black coat, her wrists are crossed on her lap, and she looks slightly down from directly ahead.

The dancer’s face is completely obscured; the other woman’s eyes are obscured by the brim of her hat. The two women occupy only the left half of the wooden bench, leaving the other half free.

Degas provides no other clues as to what the two women are waiting for, nor whether there is any relationship between them. Once again he leaves this as a problem painting, inviting the viewer to speculate and to construct their own narrative as they wish.

Degas’ narrative paintings show two distinct phases: up to 1865, he made quite explicit history paintings of relatively unusual stories in a quite conventional manner, although several of his compositions were complex, and he cropped the images in a very modern style.

After 1865, he continued to paint narrative works, but they did not tell familiar stories. Instead they were implicit and open-ended, inviting the viewer to speculate and build their own narrative from the visual clues and cues which he provided. These are consistent with the sub-genre of problem paintings, which were becoming increasingly popular, and related to serialised detective stories, for example.


Edgar Degas: Narrative paintings from 1866 – The Eclectic Light Company
https://eclecticlight.co/2017/09/06/edgar-degas-narrative-paintings-from-1866/ 

Jean Beraud was a French painter who was known for portraying everyday Parisian life. He immortalized strangers and ordinary Parisians through his paintings. One of his famous works is "The Wait." The painting features a woman dressed in black waiting at the side of the road. The street is empty and the buildings at the background loom in silence. The lone figure is looking towards the curve, waiting for someone, perhaps a lover, a family, a friend, someone dear and important.

 

 

The Long Wait: Best Waiting Paintings - Art State of Mind

https://www.dailyartmagazine.com/best-waiting-paintings/