The Star

CC0 Public Domain Designation

Prints and Drawings

1879/81

Edgar Degas
French, 1834-1917

The prima ballerina shown in Edgar Degas’s pastel has been identified as the Spanish dancer Rosita Mauri, who moved from Catalonia to Paris and gained fame at the Paris Opéra in the late 1870s.

Status: Currently Off View
Department: Prints and Drawings

Artist: Hilaire Germain Edgar Degas
Title: The Star
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.: 1879–1881
Medium: Pastel on cream wove paper, edge mounted on board
Inscriptions: Signed recto, lower right, in brown patel: "Degas"
Dimensions: 73.3 × 57.4 cm (28 7/8 × 22 5/8 in.)
Credit Line: Bequest of Mrs. Diego Suarez
Reference Number: 1980.414
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/60656/manifest.json

Alfred Frankfurter, “Panorama of a Great Decade: The 1870s,” Art News (December 3, 1938), p. 11 (ill.).
Connoisseurs of the World: Being an International Biographical Dictionary of Connoisseurs, Collectors, and Patrons of Art (London, 1943), p. 82.
Denis Rouart, Degas, à la Recherche de sa Technique (Paris, 1945), p. 17.
P. A. Lemoisne, Degas et son Oeuvre (Paris, 1946), no. 598 (ill.).
Lillian Browse, Degas’s Dancers (London, 1949), no. 58.
Fiorella Minervino and Franco Russoli, L’opera completa di Degas (Milan, 1970), no. 751 (ill.).
Jean Sutherland Boggs, Degas (Chicago, 1996), pp. 45-46, 49 (ill. detail), 92 (ill.), and 109, pl. 21.

Paris, Galerie Georges Petit, “Degas,” April 12-May 2, 1924, cat. 152.
Paris, Bernheim-Jeune and Co., “Cent ans de Théâtre,” May 1936, cat. 28.
Paris, Musée de l’Orangerie, “Degas,” March-April 1937, cat. 113.
New York, Carroll Carstairs, “The 1870s in France,” 1938.
New York, Jacques Seligmann Gallery, “The Stage,” April 3-22, 1939, cat. 18.
New York, “Masterpieces of Art: Exhibition at the New York’s World’s Fair,” 1939.
The Cleveland Museum of Art, “Works by Edgar Degas,” February 5-March 9, 1947, cat. 37.
New York, Wildenstein and Company, “A Loan Exhibition of Degas for the Benefit of the New York Infirmary,” 1949, cat. 52.
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, “Exhibition of Works by Edgar Degas,” 1958.
The Art Institute of Chicago, “Degas in The Art Institute of Chicago,” July 19-September 23, 1984, pp. 94-95, cat. 41 (ill.), cat. by Richard R. Brettell and Suzanne Folds McCullagh.
The Art Institute of Chicago, “Degas: At the Track, On the Stage”, July 1, 2015-February 26, 2016, no cat.

Private collection, Paris, [Browse, 1949]; sold, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, February 1919, lot 76. Roger G. Gompel, by 1924-at least 1937 [Paris 1924; Paris 1937]. Cesar de Hauke, New York [Lemoisne 1946]. Jacques Seligmann and Company, New York [Lemoisne 1946]. Mr. and Mrs. Diego Suarez, New York, by 1939 [old label removed and now in curatorial file]; bequeathed by Mrs Diego Suarez to the Art Institute, 1980.

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.

Suggested Terms

See all hours

Currently Off View

Date:

Artist:

About this artwork

Status

Department

Artist

Title

Place

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.

Medium

Inscriptions

Dimensions

Credit Line

Reference Number

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.

Extended information about this artwork

Publication History

Exhibition History

Provenance

Share

Explore Further

Sign up for our enewsletter to receive updates.

Gallery actions

Image actions

Share

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.