Auguste Degas

Prints and Drawings

c. 1859

Edgar Degas
French, 1834–1917

Family portraits dominated Edgar Degas’s output in the 1850s. Before his departure for Italy in 1856 (and again, on his return in 1859), he depicted his brothers and sisters; during his time abroad he turned his attention to his grandfather, aunts, uncles, and cousins. Although Degas lived in the family house for the spring and summer of 1859, this is the only known formal portrait of his father from those early years. Stylistically, the work owes much to the restrained draftsmanship of Ingres, whom Degas met and admired in his student days. The use of shading, however, softens the facial features and lends a surprising sensuality.

Status: Currently Off View
Department: Prints and Drawings

Artist: Hilaire Germain Edgar Degas
Title: Auguste Degas
Place: France (Artist's nationality)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: Made 1854–1864
Medium: Graphite, with touches of stumping, on buff laid paper with red and brown inclusions
Inscriptions: Inscribed verso, upper left, in graphite: "H" [?]; partially erased inscription, lower left, in graphite: "…gas…"
Dimensions: 33.9 × 25.9 cm (13 3/8 × 10 1/4 in.)
Credit Line: Gift of Dorothy Braude Edinburg to the Harry B. and Bessie K. Braude Memorial Collection
Reference Number: 2013.920
IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.: https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/185849/manifest.json

Marcel Guérin, Dix-neuf portraits de Degas par lui-même (Paris, 1931) (ill.).
Agnes Mongan, “Portrait Studies by Degas in American Collections,” Bulletin of the Fogg Art Museum I: 4 (May 1932), p. 63, fig. 4.
Agnes Mongan, “Degas: As Seen in American Collections,” Burlington Magazine 72 (June 1938), p. 295.
Jean Sutherland Boggs, Portraits by Degas (Berkeley, Cal., 1962), p. 114.
Suzanne Folds McCullagh (ed.), Drawings in Dialogue: Old Master Through Modern, The Harry B. and Bessie K. Braude Memorial Collection, exh. cat. (Chicago: The Art Institute of Chicago, 2006), p. 105, cat. 70 (ill.).

Cambridge, Mass., Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, “Exhibition of French Painting of the 19th and 20th Centuries,” Mar. 6–Apr. 6, 1929, cat. 31.
Philadelphia, The Pennsylvania Museum of Art, “Degas, 1834–1917,” 1936, cat. 7.
San Francisco, California Palace of the Legion of Honor, “Nineteenth Century French Drawings,” Mar. 8-Apr. 6, 1947, p. 57, cat. 90.
Minneapolis Institute of Arts, “Degas’ Portraits of his Family and Friends,” Mar. 6–28, 1948.
Rotterdam, Boymans Museum, “French Drawings in American Collections,” 1958, cat. 167, pl. 160; traveled to Paris, Musée de Orangerie and New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Cambridge, Mass., Fogg Art Museum, “Forty Master Drawings from the Collection of John Nicholas Brown,” June 1962, cat. 6
Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, “Edgar Degas: The Reluctant Impressionist,” June 20–Sept. 1, 1974, cat. 64.
Kunsthalle Tübingen, “Edgar Degas: Pastelle, Ölskizzen, Zeichnungen,” Jan. 14-Mar. 25, 1984, cat. 5; traveled to the Nationalgalerie, Berlin, Apr. 5–May 20,1984.
New York, Marc de Montebello Fine Art, “Edgar Degas Drawings,” 1994, p. 8.
Kunsthaus Zurich, “Degas: Portraits,” Dec. 2, 1994–Mar. 5, 1995, cat. 26; traveled to the Kunsthalle Tübingen, Mar. 18–June 18, 1995.
Art Institute of Chicago, “Drawings in Dialogue: Old Master Through Modern, The Harry B. and Bessie K. Braude Memorial Collection,” June 3–July 30, 2006, p. 105, cat. 70 (ill.).
Art Institute of Chicago, “The Thrill of the Chase: Drawings for the Harry B. and Bessie K. Braude Memorial Collection,” Mar. 15-June 15, 2014, no cat.

Estate of the artist [stamp (Lugt 657) recto, lower left, in red]; René de Gas (1845–1926), Paris; sold, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, Nov. 10, 1927, lot 11. Galerie Rosenberg, Paris. Wildenstein & Co., New York. John Nicholas Brown (1900–1979), Providence, R.I., by 1929-at least 1948. Sold, Sotheby’s, London, Nov. 28, 1995, lot 176, to Dorothy Braude Edinburg, Brookline, MA.; given to the Art Institute of Chicago, 2013.

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