Edgar Degas's Painting, The Dance Class

In the painting The Dance Class, the artist Edgar Degas uses line, light, space and shape to create a light, happy and welcoming mood. Line in an element of art that is defined by a point moving in space. Edgar Degas uses line in his painting. All the humans in his painting are painted with curved lines. This contributes to the theme of the painting because straight lines make everything look too perfect and strict while curved lines give the feeling of happiness and a more enjoyable atmosphere. Also, the curved lines make the dancers look as if they are in the middle of dancing, the lines give the painting a sense of motion. Light is a another tool artists use to create depth and perception in a work of art. Degas also uses light in his painting

This contributes to the theme because all of the light in the room reflecting off the many dresses and light coloured wall creates a warm-feeling environment. When something is light it is considered good while when something is dark it is considered bad. For example, in many tv shows and movies the ‘good guys’ will be dressed in lighter colors while the ‘bad guys’ will be dressed in darker colors. Color is an element of art that is made up of three different means, value- the darkness or lightness of an image, saturation- how vibrant an image is and hue- the spectral color name. Most of the colors in this piece have low saturation, which gives the painting a warm feeling. None of the colors are in-your-face bright, which can make a painting feel cold and unwelcoming unlike Degas’ painting which feels welcoming and happy. The last technique Edgar Degas used in his painting, The Dance Class is space. Space is an element of art that helps distinguish the positive and negative areas of a piece of art and gives a painting depth. In the painting Degas gives everyone their own space and does not cluster people together. All the dancers have their own space without looking separated from one