Pendant portraits of Maerten Soolmans and Oopjen Coppit by Eugène Fromentin in 1877 with the remark that they were examples of Rembrandt at his best and were painted in the same period that Rembrandt painted his "Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp", traditionally marking the beginning of his career in Amsterdam. Clearly, the flamboyance of these young newlyweds did more to launch Rembrandt's career as a portrait painter for the Amsterdam upper class than his sober depiction of a class of serious students in Leiden. The entire Van Loon collection was sold to Rothschild for 40,000 pounds, which at the time was over a million francs. Wilhelm von
The Dance Lesson The Dance Lesson The Dance Lesson (sometimes known as The Dancing Lesson) is an oil on canvas painting by the French artist Edgar Degas created around 1879. It is currently kept at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. There is at least one other work by Degas by this title, also made in about 1879, which is a pastel. The painting is the first of a series of about 40 pictures that Degas painted in this horizontal, frieze-like format. It measures . To the far left is a double bass with an exhausted dancer wearing a bright orange