Dancer Yawning (Dancer Stretching), Edgar Degas, 1873 (RA, Impressionists on Paper)               https://flic.kr/p/2pxwnzU (Essence - diluted oil paint - on prepared green paperboard) In the 1870s Degas spent much of his time backstage at the Paris Opera observing dancers behind-the-scenes, in rehearsals, the classroom or, like the dancer here, in an offbeat moment of fatigue and relaxation. A consummate draughtsman, Degas seizes the dancer's pose, isolating the figure on a sheet of startling green paper. Always a great experimenter, Degas loved these coloured papers that are a distinctive feature of some of his drawings of this date. [Text from the exhibition label. ]

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