Footlights/gaslight glow Symbolism
Footlights and gaslight were hallmarks of nineteenth-century stagecraft, casting a frontal glow that bleaches color and sharply isolates gesture. In visual art, this glare often signals the machinery of performance—exposure, repetition, and labor—rather than romantic illusion. The motif marks modern conditions of work under theatrical display.
Footlights/gaslight glow in The Rehearsal of the Ballet Onstage
In Edgar Degas's The Rehearsal of the Ballet Onstage (ca. 1874), harsh footlights structure the scene: clustered ballerinas stretch, yawn, and repeat steps under a flattening glow, while a ballet master or conductor drives the tempo. The same light exposes a hierarchy at the edges—the abonnes lounging in the wings and the looming double bass that anchors the labor of music—turning rehearsal into a modern drama of work and power.
