Orchestra Musicians, Degas

While the original painting was in the possession of a personal friend of the artist, two years after gifting it, the painter asked to make some changes. The result was a complete reorganization of the characters.
He removed five centimeters from both the left and right sides while adding about twenty centimeters of canvas at the top, to rework what are now the ballet girls on the stage.

What's interesting about this work is that it presents a proposal of contrasts on various levels, including style, as the dancers are painted in an Impressionist mode and the musicians in a Realist one. Other contrasts include light and shadow, innocence and maturity, grace and seriousness, and finally the feminine and the masculine.