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Self-Portrait

1857
Not on view
Degas’s early study of printmaking led him to a close examination of Rembrandt’s etched portraits, including their shifts between more and less finished compositions. This exceptionally rare first state of the artist’s 1857 self-portrait has an evanescent quality, an effect that is reinforced by the complete lack of finish in the sitter’s hands and the drawing tools they hold, which are visible in later states.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Self-Portrait
  • Artist: Edgar Degas (French, Paris 1834–1917 Paris)
  • Date: 1857
  • Medium: Etching on wove paper; first state of four
  • Dimensions: Plate: 9 1/16 x 5 11/16 in. (23 x 14.4 cm)
    Sheet: 10 11/16 x 7 in. (27.2 x 17.8 cm)
  • Classification: Prints
  • Credit Line: Purchase, Mr. and Mrs. Richard J. Bernhard Gift, 1972
  • Object Number: 1972.625
  • Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints

More Artwork

More Artwork
The Little Fourteen-Year-Old Dancer, Edgar Degas French, Partially tinted bronze, cotton tarlatan, silk satin, and wood, French, Paris
The Little Fourteen-Year-Old Dancer
Edgar Degas
Founder Cast by A. A. Hébrard
modeled 1881, cast 1922, modern tutu
Ceramic Horn, Glazed pottery, French
Ceramic Horn
French
late 18th or early 19th century
Thicket (Cambridge, New York), Arnold Bittleman American, Etching on zinc plate printed on wove paper
Thicket (Cambridge, New York)
Arnold Bittleman
ca. 1979–80
The Dance Class, Edgar Degas French, Oil on canvas
The Dance Class
Edgar Degas
1874
Édouard Manet, Seated, Holding His Hat, Edgar Degas French, Graphite and black chalk
Édouard Manet, Seated, Holding His Hat
Edgar Degas
Sitter Edouard Manet
ca. 1868

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