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Marguerite De Gas, the Artist's Sister

1860–62
Not on view
This exquisite, intimate portrait of the artist’s sister, Marguerite De Gas, dates from shortly after Degas’s return to Paris following a three-year sojourn in Italy. It demonstrates his increasing sophistication with the medium of etching, which he had begun to explore in earnest while abroad. Portraiture dominated Degas’s practice in this period, and his earliest work in the genre focused naturally on his family members. This is the only extant impression of the second state of the etching and the most successful of the six states he printed. Degas indicated his preference for it by approving the production of a heliogravure (photographic print) based on this impression after he ruined the plate by overworking it.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Marguerite De Gas, the Artist's Sister
  • Artist: Edgar Degas (French, Paris 1834–1917 Paris)
  • Date: 1860–62
  • Medium: Etching and drypoint; unique impression of the second state of six
  • Dimensions: Plate: 4 9/16 × 3 7/16 in. (11.6 × 8.8 cm)
    Sheet: 5 1/16 × 3 15/16 in. (12.8 × 10 cm)
    Mat: 12 × 9 11/16 in. (30.5 × 24.6 cm)
    Framed: 15 × 12 in. (38.1 × 30.5 cm)
  • Classification: Prints
  • Credit Line: Purchase, Charles and Jessie Price, Friends of Drawings and Prints, and Barbara and Howard Fox Gifts, A. Hyatt Mayor Purchase Fund, Marjorie Phelps Starr Bequest, and Charles Z. Offin Fund, 2020
  • Object Number: 2020.10
  • Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints

More Artwork

More Artwork
Woman Having Her Hair Combed, Edgar Degas French, Pastel on light green wove paper, now discolored to warm gray, affixed to original pulpboard mount
Woman Having Her Hair Combed
Edgar Degas
ca. 1886–88
Ceramic Horn, Glazed pottery, French
Ceramic Horn
French
late 18th or early 19th century
Nocturne: Palaces, James McNeill Whistler American, Etching and drypoint; printed in dark brown ink on drum mounted medium weight ivory laid paper.
Nocturne: Palaces
James McNeill Whistler
1879–80
The Dance Class, Edgar Degas French, Oil on canvas
The Dance Class
Edgar Degas
1874
Osage Warrior, Charles Balthazar Julien Févret de Saint-Mémin French, Watercolor and graphite on off-white wove paper, American
Osage Warrior
Charles Balthazar Julien Févret de Saint-Mémin
1805–7

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