#54 The Rehearsal of the Ballet Onstage — Coaster

Degas painted rehearsals, not performances, because what interested him was the work rather than the applause. Look at the two men in black chairs in the wings: they are *abonnés*, season subscribers, and their subscription bought them the right to stand backstage among girls who were mostly poor and mostly teenagers. He put them in the picture on purpose. It is a painting of who was watching, as much as of who was dancing. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.