Galerie Dreyfus
21
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EDGAR DEGAS (PARIS, 1834 – PARIS, 1917)
Little Girl Carrying…
See original version (French)
21
-
EDGAR DEGAS (PARIS, 1834 – PARIS, 1917)
Little Girl Carrying…
See original version (French)
Estimate €600,000 - €750,000
Voluntary lot
Description
EDGAR DEGAS
(PARIS, 1834 – PARIS, 1917)
Little Girl Carrying Flowers in Her Apron
Circa 1860–62
Oil on canvas
73.3 x 55.7 cm.
Signed lower right ‘Degas
’
Publication
Work reproduced in M. Schulman’s catalogue raisonné.
This young girl, advancing with grace and restraint, performs a light dance step, halfway
towards a curtsy. With her arms stretched forward to lift her skirt, which holds
a bouquet of flowers, she offers a glimpse of her ankles, crossed in a precarious balance.
Emerging from the shadows of the background, she steps into the light as if onto a
proscenium. Might she not, in fact, be taking her curtain call after a performance? The flowers
would then be those from her ovation, as might be expected for a young star of the opera… Somewhere between a portrait
and a genre scene, this painting, with its fine and lively brushwork, captures a pose of
great freshness, seized on the spot. This early work foreshadows the favourite subjects
that Degas would develop at the height of his maturity and already reveals his passion for the young ‘rats’
of the Paris Opera, whom he set out to paint from every angle. Whilst there are no clues
in the setting to pinpoint the scene, the girl’s attire and young age
likely indicate that she is a child ‘from a good family’ within the painter’s circle, captured on the occasion
of a family gathering.
Edgar Degas (1834–1917) was a French painter associated with the Impressionist movement.
Born into a wealthy and cultured family, Degas began copying the great masters at the Louvre at a very early age, before
embarking on journeys to Italy to discover the works of the Renaissance. From 1874 onwards, he
exhibited regularly at the Salon des Impressionnistes. In Montmartre, where he mingled with the artistic
avant-garde, he became friends with Édouard Manet. From the 1880s onwards, as his eyesight began to fail,
he favoured the pastel technique, sometimes combining it with gouache or watercolour.
It was during this period that he developed an interest in ballerinas, who would become one of
his favourite subjects. A regular opera-goer, he chose them as models, having them strike
endless poses on stage or behind the scenes. His passion for the female form is also expressed in
his other variations on ‘women at their dressing tables’, a veritable leitmotif in his painting, in which he casts a
deeply intimate gaze upon his models, revisiting the theme of women at their dressing tables.
See original version (French)
Auto-translation. Refer to original language for legal validity.
Pictures credits: Contact the Auction House
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