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The Ballet Class
The Ballet Class (French: La Classe de danse) is an oil painting on canvas by the French artist Edgar Degas. The painting displays a group of ballerinas at the end of a dance lesson and their teacher, Jules Perrot, a real-life ballet master.

It was painted between 1871 and 1874. The Ballet Class belongs to the collection of the Musée d'Orsay located in Paris, France.

Most of the critics claim that Edgar Degas is one of the leading figures of Impressionism, but Degas himself preferred the term "realist".

Interpretation
In the foreground there are three main figures - a standing ballerina, a ballerina sitting on piano and a ballet master, the centre of attention, holding a cane. In the background there is a group of ballerinas - some of them are stretching and practising dance moves, some of them are resting, talking to each other and paying no attention to the teacher. "From the 1870s until his death, Degas's favourite subjects were ballerinas at work, in rehearsal or at rest, and he tirelessly explored the theme with many variations in posture and gesture."