Study for a Portrait of Monsieur and Madame Louis Rouart

Prints and Drawings

1904

Edgar Degas
French, 1834–1917

This pastel is one of a group of works in which Edgar Degas acknowledged his lifetime friendship with Henri Rouart—an industrialist, gifted amateur painter, and serious collector—and Rouart’s family. This pastel, probably a study for an unrealized painting, depicts Henri’s youngest child, Louis, and his wife, Christine. One of eight large drawings connected to the project, it exemplifies the bold, gestural handling characteristic of the artist’s late, expressive style.

Status: Currently Off View
Department: Prints and Drawings

Artist: Hilaire Germain Edgar Degas
Title: Study for a Portrait of Monsieur and Madame Louis Rouart
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 1904
Medium: Pastel and charcoal, with stumping and touches of erasing, on tracing paper, laid down on board
Dimensions: 97.7 × 77.5 cm (38 1/2 × 30 9/16 in.)
Credit Line: Gift of Richard and Mary L. Gray
Reference Number: 2019.843

Paul-André Lemoisne, Degas et son oeurvre, vol. 3 (P. Brame and C.M. de Hauke, 1946), no. 1442 (ill.).

Art Institute of Chicago, Gray Collection: Seven Centuries of Art, Sept. 25, 2010–Jan. 2, 2011, cat. 66 (ill.).
The Art Institute of Chicago, “Pure Drawing: Seven Centuries of Art from the Gray Collection”, January 25 - May 10, 2020, pp. 73-75, fig. 10, p. 142, GC 102.

Estate of the artist; sold, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, Apr. 7–9, 1919, lot 65. Paul-André Lemoisne. Stevens collection, Paris. Sold, Kornfeld and Klipstein, Bern, June 18–21, 1980, lot 237. Richard Gray Gallery, Chicago. Private collection, Evanston, Il.; sold to Richard and Mary L. Gray, Chicago, July 1980; given to the Art Institute of Chicago, 2019.

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