Edgar Degas', The Dancer (oil on canvas) was produced in 1876 and is now at the San Diego Museum of Art here in Balboa Park. This painting depicts Degas's famous motif of ballerinas caught practicing their movements. There is a lone dancer at center stage, completely dominating the canvas. Degas uses dull colors, mainly beige brown and melancholic blue for her tutu, instead of the light pink he uses in the other portraits of the dancers. His body is very gravitated, depicted almost like a tree trunk. We can see his use of earthly colors in this painting, as it is dominated by different shades of earthly blues and browns. His use of light and shadow is prevalent here, as the canvas seems split in two, through his use of shadow. We can see that this particular dancer is the heroine of his painting, as she stands alone, exhibiting her grand presence. Her figure seems heavy and not ethereal, as Degas presents his other dancers. There is something unique about her. We cannot make out his face or understand his facial expression; we are only left with his body language to predict what he might convey. I can't tell if her faceless face suggests a generic idea of ​​all ballerinas or if he chose not to paint her face because of her poor eyesight. The fact that she has no facial expression leaves her without an identity. Like every other painting of his, this one captures a moment, permanently freezing it in time. He describes moments that couldn't have lasted more than a few seconds and paints them in a particular way that immortalizes them. This particular dancer is not performing, she appears to be practicing in the ballroom; however, he... in the center of the card......, the larger sensation of the scene. He wants us to take in the entire painting but take a moment to take in individual scenes within it, such as the couple dancing, the man in the corner rolling his cigar, or the women in front talking to the man. We find places where our eyes can rest, but overall your eyes perceive the whirlwind of modern life and pleasure. Degas' passion for depicting ballerinas performing perfectly captures the tone of Impressionism. Impressionist painters were enchanted by modern life and captured the movement of life in Paris. Both Degas's Ballerinas and Renoir's Moulin de la Galette capture the essential qualities of Impressionism. Because Degas' Dancers reflect much of the Impressionist movement, we can compare the work to other works from the same time and place, such as that of Renoir..