Portrait of Degas 1875 drypoint British Museum |
During the 1870s Degas and several friends made portrait prints of each other. The person in the image above is confidently identified as Degas by curators at the British Museum, but they remain in doubt about which of his relatively obscure colleagues actually made it. Perhaps it was Giuseppe De Nittis, but apparently it might equally well have been Marcellin Desboutin. Doubts about the portrait artist do not extend to the images below – which are solely and unambiguously by and from the hand of Degas himself.
Edgar Degas Two Dancers ca. 1877-78 drypoint, aquatint British Museum |
Edgar Degas The laundresses 1879-80 etching, aquatint British Museum |
Edgar Degas Backstage behind the safety curtain 1877-78 drypoint, aquatint British Museum |
Edgar Degas On stage 1876 etching, drypoint British Museum |
Edgar Degas On stage 1876-77 etching, drypoint British Museum |
Edgar Degas The little dressing room 1879-80 drypoint British Museum |
Edgar Degas Sleep 1883-85 monotype British Museum |
Edgar Degas After the bath 1891-92 lithograph British Museum |
Degas has appeared on this rolling screen more frequently than any other artist. I am not sure why this is so, why he defeats even the competition of established cult-favorites like Poussin and Bacon. Other impressions of the two Degas prints immediately below have in fact appeared here before. But each impression of a Degas print is different, and Degas knows very well how to make the differences significant.
Edgar Degas Leaving the bath 1879-80 drypoint, aquatint British Museum |
Edgar Degas At the Louvre, in the Etruscan Gallery (Mary Cassatt at the Louvre) 1879-80 etching British Museum |
Edgar Degas Lake in the Pyrenees ca. 1890-93 monotype British Museum |
Edgar Degas Cape Hornu near St Valery-sur-Somme ca. 1890-93 monotype British Museum |
Edgar Degas Heads of a woman and man ca. 1877-80 monotype British Museum |
Edgar Degas Young woman with field glasses ca. 1866-68 drawing British Museum |