When Edgar Degas produced Ukrainian Dancers in 1899, he was already nearly blind, working almost entirely by memory and touch. This late work stands out because it captures not the Parisian ballet for which he is famous, but a vibrant, foreign folk dance—an unusual subject for the artist. Scholars have long debated whether Degas witnessed such a performance firsthand or drew inspiration from illustrated journals and costume studies circulating in cosmopolitan Paris.

The painting is one of a handful of late pastels and drawings in which Degas explored Eastern European themes, a curiosity that remains only partly explained. The dancers here are caught mid-motion, their hands linked, skirts swirling, heads crowned with bright kerchiefs and floral wreaths. Degas selects the moment of communal exuberance: the figures lean into the circle, faces flushed with energy, their bodies forming a dynamic chain. The bold, rhythmic brushwork and vivid colors echo the music and movement of the dance itself, while the close cropping thrusts the viewer into the throng.

Unlike his earlier, more detached views of the Paris Opéra, here Degas brings us into the heart of the celebration, much as Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec did with his scenes of Montmartre’s cabarets—though Degas’s approach is more intimate, less theatrical. The precise history of Ukrainian Dancers as an object is murky. Its medium is debated—some catalogues list it as pastel, others as oil or mixed technique, reflecting Degas’s experimental methods late in life. The work remained in private hands for decades, surfacing occasionally in exhibitions devoted to Degas’s final years, and has been the subject of attribution discussions due to the unusual subject and style.

Today, it is recognized as an important example of Degas’s fascination with movement and his willingness, even at the end of his career, to seek out new subjects and forms.