Copy painting on canvas of the artwork
The Curtain Falls (Degas)

This masterful panoramic composition depicts the final bow of a ballet at the Paris Opéra. The scene is viewed from the front rows, with the heads of the audience and the orchestra pit in the foreground. On stage, a multitude of dancers in white tutus bow to the audience as the curtain begins to fall. Degas orchestrates a complex play of light and shadow, contrasting the darkness of the auditorium with the brightly lit stage. The work captures the organized chaos of the end of a performance. The silhouettes of subscribers in top hats on the right side of the stage add a touch of social realism. It is an epic and immersive vision of the world of entertainment, one of Degas’s most ambitious works on this theme.