Three Dancers Preparing for Class, after 1878, Pastel on buff-colored wove paper, 21 1/2 x 20 1/2 in. (54. 6 x 52. 1 cm), Drawings, Edgar Degas (French, Paris 1834?1917 Paris), The seated dancer in this pastel was derived from a study dated December 1878 of the fifteen-year-old Melina Darde. That drawing and those which explored the poses of the two dancers in the foreground belonged to a stock of figure drawings that Degas used for his larger compositions