Degas portrayed his aloof, slightly pouty, patrician features a number of times in the course of his career, particularly as a young man. This early example, executed when the artist was little more than twenty-years old, served as the model for a self-portrait etching he made in 1857, which reproduces the image in reverse. Both the pose and expression seen here relate closely to two nearly contemporaneous painted self-portraits by Degas. The shadowy contrast of light and dark may reflect his interest, at this particular moment of his career, in the work of Rembrandt.
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Artwork Details
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Title:Self-Portrait
Artist:Edgar Degas (French, Paris 1834–1917 Paris)
Sitter:Edgar Degas (French, Paris 1834–1917 Paris)
Date:by 1857
Medium:Black chalk and graphite, heightened with white on heavy beige wove paper
Dimensions:Sheet: 11 3/4 x 9 1/8 in. (29.8 x 23.1cm)
Classification:Drawings
Credit Line:Bequest of Walter C. Baker, 1971
Accession Number:1972.118.207
Private collection, France Paris
Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek. "Edgar Degas, 1834-1917: skulpturer og monotypier tegninger og malerier," September 4, 1948–September 26, 1948.
Pittsburgh. Carnegie Institute. "French Painting, 1100-1900, Pittsburgh, Carnegie Institute, 1951," October 18, 1951–December 2, 1951.
Rotterdam. Museum Boymans. "Van Clouet tot Matisse, Tentoonstelling van franse tekeningen uit amerikaanse collecties," July 31–September 28, 1958.
Paris. Musée de l'Orangerie. "De Clouet à Matisse, dessins français des collections américaines," October–November 1958.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "French Drawings from American Collections: Clouet to Matisse," February 3–March 15, 1959.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Walter C. Baker Collection of Drawings," June 2–September 4, 1960.
Paris. Cabinet des dessins, Musée du Louvre. "Dessins français du Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York de David à Picasso," October 25, 1973–January 7, 1974.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Degas in the Metropolitan," February 26–September 4, 1977.
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. "Edgar Degas: The Painter as Printmaker," November 14, 1984–January 13, 1985.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Drawings and Prints: Selections from the Permanent Collection," January 3–March 27, 2011.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Rembrandt and Degas: Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man," February 23–May 20, 2012.
MMA 1988. see p. 71 MMA 1977. 3
Edgar Degas. Exh. cat.: September 4-26. Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen, 1948, cat. no. 107, p. 31, ill.
René Huyghe, Philippe Jaccottet Le Dessin Français au XIXe Siècle. 1948, pp. 175, 87, ill.
Edgar Degas. Exh. cat. Galerie Blanche, Stockholm, October 9 - November 7, 1948, cat. no. 114, pp. 9, 46, ill.
French Painting, 1100-1900 Exh. cat. Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, October 18-December 2, 1951, cat. no. 162, ill.
John Rewald Histoire de l'Impressionisme. 1955, fig. no. pl. 1, ill.
French Drawings from American Collections: Clouet to Matisse A Special Loan Exhibition, February 3–March 15, 1959. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1959, cat. no. 158, fig. no. pl. 138, p. 106, ill.
Claus Virch "The Walter C. Baker Collection of Master Drawings." in The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, vol. 18, no. 10, New York, June 1960, fig. no. 8, p. 316, ill.
John Rewald The History of Impressionism. 1961, p. 27, ill.
Claus Virch Master Drawings in the Collection of Walter C. Baker. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1962, cat. no. 103, p. 58, ill.
Jacob Bean Great Private Collections. Douglas Cooper, Macmillan & Co., New York, 1963, p. 36.
Douglas Cooper "The Great Private Collections: Walter C. Baker." The Sunday Times Colour Magazine. October 6, 1963, p. 19, ill.
Paul Moses An Exhibition of Etchings by Edgar Degas. Ex. cat. University of Chicago, 1964, cat. no. 9.
Jacques Fryszman "French Drawings from the Metropolitan Museum at the Louvre." The Burlington Magazine. 115, no. 849, December 1973, p. 836.
Jacob Bean, Linda Boyer Gillies, Cynthia Lambros, Roseline Bacou, Réunion des Musées Nationaux Dessins français du Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York: de David à Picasso 54th Exposition de Cabinet des Dessins Musée du Louvre, 25 octobre 1973–7 janvier 1974. Paris, 1973, cat. no. 26, ill.
Sue Welsh Reed, Barbara Stern Shapiro Edgar Degas: The Painter as Printmaker. Exh. cat., Boston, Philadelphia, and London. Boston, 1984, cat. no. 8a, 23-25, ill.
Artemis 84-85: Consolidated Audited Annual Report. Artemis Fine Arts SA Luxembourg, October 25, 1985, fig. no. 1, p. 26, ill.
Richard Thomson "Degas Literature: The Class of 1984." Master Drawings. vol. 23-24, no. 4, Winter 1986, p. 557, ill.
Jean Sutherland Boggs, Douglas Druick, Henri Loyrette, Michael Pantazzi, Gary Tinterow Degas. Ex. cat.: Paris, Ottawa, MMA, 1988-1989. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Réunion des Musées Nationaux, National Museums of Canada, New York and Ottawa, 1988-89, not included in the exhibition, p. 71.
Nadine Orenstein, Jeff L. Rosenheim "A Centennial Album: Drawings, Prints and Photographs." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin. LXXIV, no. 3, Winter 2017, p. 6, ill.
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The Met's collection of drawings and prints—one of the most comprehensive and distinguished of its kind in the world—began with a gift of 670 works from Cornelius Vanderbilt, a Museum trustee, in 1880.
