From Stage to Canvas (and vice versa): Theatre and Opera in Fine Art

From Pablo Picasso to Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Édouard Manet, Henri Matisse, and Edgar Degas, the stage has both inspired and been shaped by some of history’s greatest artists. Painters, sculptors, and designers have long been inspired by the drama and dynamism of the stage, while other artists have been inspired to add their art to the performing arts as set designers and costumers.

Whether they have immortalized the stage on canvas or shaped it through their design, artists have been influential in challenging convention and continuing to push the boundaries of painting and the performing arts. Together, art and the theatre have enjoyed an enduring relationship that shares the desire to move, challenge, and captivate their audience.

“Give them bread and circuses, and they will never revolt,”

Juvenal

While painters like Edgar Degas and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec drew inspiration from the stage, artists such as Pablo Picasso and Sonia Delaunay transformed it with their own artistic vision. Gone were traditions and in their place were new and exciting ideas that furthered and enriched both artistic fields, demonstrating the fluid nature of the boundaries between the two art forms.

Painting the Stage

Edgar Degas

Edgar Degas and the stage were almost inseparable. Regarded as one of the founders of impressionism, ballet and the theatre were an obsession for Degas, as more than half of his paintings depicted dancers either on stage or behind the scenes. Showing the energy, movement, and atmosphere in the world of dance and theatre, Degas was perhaps the quintessential chronicler of ballet, as his intimate paintings of dancers visualized what it meant to be a ballet dancer.

The 19th century in Paris was a time when great spectacles known as grand operas that consisted of four or even five acts were in their ascendancy. At the Paris Opera, Degas was given backstage access and allowed to observe the pre-show routines of the dancers, which fascinated him. In fact, The Ballet from Robert le Diable (1871–1872) was the only specific opera Degas ever painted, instead preferring to show the grit and toil behind the glamor in The Dance Class(1874), The Rehearsal of the Ballet Onstage (1874), Swaying Dancer (Dancer in Green) (1877–1879), Waiting (1880–1882) and Blue Dancers (1897). All are masterpieces of movement and atmosphere, showcasing Degas’ love of the interplay of light and shadow on stage.

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec

Entrenched in the vibrant nightlife of Paris’s Belle Époque era, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec immersed himself in the Moulin Rouge, absinthe, and other cabarets of the era. His art reflected his lifestyle as he led the wild, uninhibited life that he depicted in Parisian clubs at the end of the 19th century.

Paintings like At the Moulin Rouge (1895) not only show the decadence of the now world-famous Parisian nightspot, but also his deep association with the club since it opened in 1889. Toulouse-Lautrec depicts some of the regulars at the club, including himself (in the center background) together with the dancer La Goulue, who is fixing her hair in the background, while the famous performer Jane Avril socializes at the table and singer May Milton dominates the right edge of the painting thanks to her acid green complexion.

La Goulue was a popular muse for Toulouse-Lautrec and was depicted in the poster Moulin Rouge: La Goulue (1891) and in the painting La Goulue Arriving At The Moulin Rouge With Two Women (1892). Paintings like Marcelle Lender Dancing the Bolero in “Chilpéric” (1895–96) showcase the vibrant energy of Parisian nightlife at the time, but his posters are perhaps Toulouse-Lautrec’s greatest legacy. His depiction of Jane Avril in Avril (1893) shows the influence of Japanese ukiyo-e prints thanks to its areas of flat color bound by strong outlines that would one day influence the defining art of Andy Warhol.

Édouard Manet

Édouard Manet loved the sophistication of Paris life. The eldest son of an official in the French Ministry of Justice, Manet rejected the naval career originally envisioned for him and instead brought to life the world of Parisian salons to life on canvas, as a pivotal figure in the transition from Realism to Impressionism.

His painting, Masked Ball at the Opera (1873) features men in top hats and flirtatious young women at a masked ball held each year during Lent, highlighting the opulence and energy of the venue where the theatre of life and staged drama often overlapped. The work is cropped with legs spilling over from the banister above in a bustling scene that expertly blurs the lines between observer and participant and transports the viewer to the heart of the ball.

The Circus

“Give them bread and circuses, and they will never revolt,” said the Roman poet Juvenal and thanks its mix of drama, comedy, and acrobatics, it has captivated painters like Marc Chagall, Henri Matisse, Jules Chéret, Georges Seurat, and Alexander Calder. Chagall’s surrealist works, like The Blue Circus (1950), use the circus as a metaphor for human emotion and transcendence, while Seurat’s Circus Sideshow (1888) captures the muted glamour of a sideshow performance.

Matisse’s bold colors and fluid forms in works like The Clown pay homage to the vibrancy of circus life, while Calder, who is known for his kinetic sculptures, also drew upon the circus’s dynamism, creating miniature wire circus performances as a playful celebration of its artistry. Cirque Calder (1926-1931) is made up of wire models rigged to perform the various functions of the circus performers they represent, from contortionists to sword eaters to lion tamers and is today part of the permanent collection of the Whitney Museum in New York.

Artists Creating for the Stage

Pablo Picasso and the Ballets Russes

No discussion of visual artists contributing to theatre is complete without Picasso’s transformative work for Sergei Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes. Not only an influential presence on canvas, Pablo Picasso also merged his cubist sensibilities with the theatrical avant-garde to transform theatre set and costume design.

Picasso met Sergei Diaghilev through Jean Cocteau in 1916 and a year later he designed the set and costumes for Parade (1917) to create striking, angular, fragmented designs that redefined the visual language of ballet. The collaboration was a fruitful one as Picasso participated in a number of Diaghilev’s shows, including Pulcinella (1920), Cuadro Flamenco (1921), L’après-midi d’un faune (1922), Mercure and Le Train Bleu (1924), showcasing Picasso’s incredible ability to appropriate all types of art.

Sonia Delaunay and the Dada Stage

As a key figure in the Orphism movement, Sonia Delaunay brought her love of abstraction and vivid color to the world of Dada theatre. Showcasing a playful yet radical approach to stage art, her costume designs for Tristan Tzara’s The Gas Heart (1923) featured geometric patterns and bold hues challenging traditional notions of theatrical costume. Blurring the lines between the performer and their costume, Delaunay’s designs created eccentric trapezoid costumes made from thick cardboard that recalled Picasso’s designs for Parade thanks to their angular fragmentation.

The play wasn’t without controversy as the show coincided with a split in the avant-garde movement that led Tzara’s rivals to establish surrealism in 1924. Such was the level of ill feeling that a riot broke out at the show’s premiere that left the dada and surrealist writer Pierre de Massot with a broken arm and the actors stranded on stage due to their restricting costumes.

Léon Bakst and the Dreamscapes of Ballet

Another collaborator with Diaghilev and the Ballet Russes, the Russian painter and scene and costume designer Léon Bakst revolutionized set and costume design through his use of exotic motifs, luxurious fabrics, and intricate detailing that brought a visual opulence to the ballet.

Predominantly working as a stage-designer, creating sets for Greek tragedies, Bakst’s designs would influence the art deco movement. Notably, he produced scenery for Cléopâtre (1909), Scheherazade (1910), Carnaval (1910), Narcisse (1911), Le Spectre de la Rose (1911), L’après-midi d’un faune (1912) and Daphnis et Chloé (1912).

Alexander Calder and the Circus of Theatre

“A sense of drama is evident in much of Calder’s work, and his predilection for strong color, movement and large scale led naturally to the theatre,” wrote Jean Lipman in the Whitney Museum of American Art catalogue, Calder’s Universe.

Renowned for his kinetic sculptures, Calder transferred his small-scale compositions to the stage for more than a dozen theatrical productions, including Martha Graham’s Panorama (1935), a production of the Erik Satie symphonic drama Socrate (1936), as well as Works in Progress (1968), which was conceived by Calder and produced at the Rome Opera House. Featuring mobiles and large painted backdrops, Calder described his stage sets as dancers performing a choreography thanks to their almost hypnotic rhythmic movement.