The dancers Degas painted mid-rehearsal

Why Degas

Degas cropped his figures like a camera, which changes where you hang him

His compositions push the subject off-centre and cut limbs at the edge, so placement matters more than it does with a centred portrait.

Degas almost never painted the performance. He painted the waiting: a dancer scratching her back, a tutu being retied, the moment before anyone is watching. That is why these hold up on a wall you pass every day rather than one you only look at from the doorway. The other thing people notice in person is the floor. Great sweeps of bare boards and dusty light take up half the canvas, and in oil that expanse is where the brushwork actually lives.

Because the figures sit off to one side, a Degas needs breathing room on the side the composition opens toward; don't jam that edge against a door frame or a bookshelf. Hang centre of canvas at about 145cm, a touch lower than usual, since the viewpoint often looks down into the scene. The palette is dusty pink, sage, ochre and stage-lit cream, which sings against warm white and mushroom walls and goes muddy against cool grey-blue. Keep frames slim and dark; heavy ornate gold fights the rehearsal-room informality. Anything under about 75cm wide loses the depth of floor that makes the picture work.

How your painting is made

1. Choose the size and finishSeven standard sizes from 60 × 50cm to 200 × 135cm. Stretched ready to hang, rolled, or one of our frames. The size guide on every painting shows it to scale.
2. Painted to order, by handA university-trained artist paints your piece in oils on canvas, working from the original. Two to three weeks at the easel, then drying time.
3. Stretched, framed, checkedGallery-wrapped or framed in our workshop, then photographed and checked before it leaves.
4. Delivered free, Australia-wideMade to order in 21 to 28 days, then tracked to your door. Thirty-day money-back guarantee if it isn't what you hoped.