Signatures, Inscriptions, and Markings Signed (lower right): Degas
Gallery Label This study for an oil painting (Musée d'Orsay, Paris) depicts the financier Ernest May, a collector of Degas' work, under the portico of the Paris stock exchange. May was thirty-three in 1878, when Degas began the pastel.
Provenance the sitter, Ernest May, Paris (bought from the artist; until d. 1925); his son, Jacques-Ernest May, Paris (1925–at least 1946); [Rosenberg & Stiebel, New York]; Norton Simon, Pasadena (until 1971; his sale, Parke-Bernet, New York, May 5, 1971, no. 36, for $185,000 to Levin); Philip and Janice H. Levin, New York (his d. 1971); Janice H. Levin, New York (1971–d. 2001)
Exhibition History Paris. Musée de l'Orangerie. "Degas: portraitiste, sculpteur," July 19–October 1, 1931, no. 128.
New York. Acquavella Galleries, Inc.. "Edgar Degas," November 1–December 3, 1978, no. 13.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Degas," September 27, 1988–January 8, 1989, not in catalogue.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "A Very Private Collection: Janice H. Levin's Impressionist Pictures," November 19, 2002–February 9, 2003, no. 8.
References Jacques-Ernest May. Letter to Paul Jamot . 1931 [Archives des Musées Nationaux, Paris; cited in Ref. Loyrette 1991].Degas: Portraitiste, Sculpteur . Exh. cat., Musée de l'Orangerie. Paris, 1931, p. 96, no. 128.Degas et son œuvre . [reprint 1984]. Paris, [1946–49], vol. 2, pp. 212–13, 276, no. 392, ill.Edgar Degas . Paris, [1957], p. 113, under no. 72 [English ed., 1958, p. 114, under no. 72].Portraits by Degas . Berkeley, 1962, pp. 110, 123.in L'opera completa di Degas . Milan, 1970, pp. 105, 108, no. 398, ill.Degas 1879 . Exh. cat., National Gallery of Scotland. Edinburgh, 1979, p. 52, under no. 49.Edgar Degas: Life and Work . New York, 1986, p. 216.in Degas . Exh. cat., Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais, Paris. New York, 1988, p. 317.Odd Man Out: Readings of the Work and Reputation of Edgar Degas . Chicago, 1991, p. 28.Degas . Paris, 1991, p. 418.in "Recent Acquisitions, A Selection: 1991–1992." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 50 (Fall 1992), p. 45, ill. (color).The New Painting: Impressionism 1874–1886 . San Francisco, 1996, vol. 2, p. 34, under no. II-38.New York Times (November 22, 2002), p. E32, ill.The Janice H. Levin Collection of French Art . Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2002, pp. 6, 9, 34–38, no. 8, ill. (color, overall and detail).in Lin Arison and Neil Folberg. Travels with Van Gogh and the Impressionists: Discovering the Connections . New York, 2007, p. 256.
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