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Portraits at the Stock Exchange

ca. 1878–79
On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 816
Degas presents a glimpse of the busy commerce at the Paris stock exchange. Financier and art collector Ernest May (1845–1925), wearing spectacles, receives a document for perusal, as an associate, identified as Monsieur Bolâtre, leans over his shoulder. The artist made this pastel as a study for an oil painting of 1878–79 (Musée d’Orsay, Paris). At the time, May was in his early thirties, and just beginning to expand his acquisitions from seventeenth- and eighteenth-century pictures to works by Degas, Manet, and their colleagues.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Portraits at the Stock Exchange
  • Artist: Edgar Degas (French, Paris 1834–1917 Paris)
  • Date: ca. 1878–79
  • Medium: Pastel on paper, pieced, and laid down on canvas
  • Dimensions: 28 3/8 x 22 7/8 in. (72.1 x 58.1 cm)
  • Classification: Drawings
  • Credit Line: Gift of Janice H. Levin, 1991
  • Object Number: 1991.277.1
  • Curatorial Department: European Paintings

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Seated Woman in Bonnet and Shawl, Edgar Degas French, Aquatint, drypoint, and etching; printed from canceled plate
Seated Woman in Bonnet and Shawl
Edgar Degas
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At the Café des Ambassadeurs, Edgar Degas French, Etching, softground, drypoint, and aquatint; fifth (final) state; canceled plate
At the Café des Ambassadeurs
Edgar Degas
1879–80
Greek Landscape, Edgar Degas French, Etching (only state; impression from cancelled plate)
Greek Landscape
Edgar Degas
1856
On Stage III, Edgar Degas French, Softground etching,drypoint, and roulette on wove paper; fourth state of five
On Stage III
Edgar Degas
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