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| Edgar Degas Study for painting - Young Spartans ca. 1860-62 drawing British Museum |
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| Edgar Degas Study for painting - Peasant girls bathing in the sea towards evening ca. 1875-76 drawing British Museum |
TO HENRI ROUART
Paris, Tuesday 26 Oct. [early 1880s]
Thank you for your pencilled letter, my dear Rouart. The sirocco, it appears, dries up the ink as it does oil colours and the vitality of the painter. Ah! how I regret not having been able to go down there with you to see those dear friends. And then, to tell you at once, it is comparatively rare, I am in the mood to love grand nature a little. You would have had as companion a changed being and one strong enough to vibrate like anyone else. The result might have been some fine drawings or pastels done by a frenzied Grevin* beside himself. And the sublime would doubtless have been just as good for me as for any sage.
We can hardly see at all here. The afternoons in particular it is night. I should like to finish Ephrussi's picture and even though the canvas and the drawings are up to date it is scarcely progressing at all. And yet there is some good money at the end of it, which is eagerly awaited.
Bring me back some fine outline drawings as you can do them. Did you take pastels with you? Water colour is thin . . . and yet Delacroix!
At Burty's there is a tiger by him in pastel which under glass looks like water colour. It is pastel put on very lightly on a slightly glossed paper. It is very vibrant, it is a lovely method.
I am going to write to Cherfils, I neglect him too much. And yet one does not often meet such affectionate and intelligent beings as he is.
The Cassatts have returned from Marly. Mlle. Cassatt is settling in a ground floor studio which does not seem too healthy to me. What she did in the country looks very well in the studio light. It is much stronger and nobler than what she had last year. I shall be seeing you soon, with your articles before us in the rue Lisbonne we can talk more freely. I am writing for fear of your malediction.
I am just off to the Boulevard Voltaire to dine with your brother. Mud, mud, mud, umbrellas. In the evening hours it is nevertheless very beautiful!
* – "Alfred Grevin, 1832-1892, founder of the wax works exhibition in Paris, was also a celebrated draftsman and caricaturist, who created a specialised genre – the humorous caricature without pretention to ethics or philosophy. A much esteemed designer of theatrical costumes he contributed to no less than 65 plays, operas, operettes and ballets – that was probably a link between him and Degas. In 1881, the year of this letter, he did 400 drawings for a book by Pierre Véron, called La Chaire Des Dames in the series Paris Vicieux. It is, perhaps, to this that Degas here refers."
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| Edgar Degas Sur la scène (On stage) ca. 1876-77 soft-ground etching, drypoint British Museum |
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| Edgar Degas Sur la scène (On stage) c1876-77 soft-ground etching, drypoint British Museum |
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| Edgar Degas Chanteuse au café-concert 1876-77 lithograph British Museum |
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| Edgar Degas Heads of a man and a woman ca. 1877-80 monotype British Museum |
TO BERTRAND [co-director of the Paris Opera]
5 Jan. 1886
Sir,
I had heard in Paris of your nomination and it is in Naples where I have been for several days that I have the pleasure of reading it in good print.
Both you and Monsieur Gailhard have been so charming to me, you have favoured me so exceptionally, that I feel myself a little attached to your fortunes and that I am getting to be, as they say, one of the household. And I have seen in this house so much activity and lavishness expended in spite of all conceivable difficulties, that in wishing you a Happy New Year, benefits and good health included, I am merely doing my duty. The title Chevalier will also suit you very well, Monsieur, and I shall hasten to the Opera as soon as I return to shake hands with you very respectfully.
Please give Monsieur Gailhard all my best wishes and friendly regards.
E. Degas
Naples
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| Edgar Degas Landscape with house, figures and fountain ca. 1878 monotype British Museum |
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| Edgar Degas Les Blanchisseuses (The Laundresses) 1879-80 etching, aquatint British Museum |
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| Edgar Degas Study of Jockey before 1880 drawing British Museum |
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| Edgar Degas Le Sommeil (Sleep) ca. 1883-85 monotype British Museum |
TO M. LE COMTE LEPIC*
supplier of good dogs, at Berck
[Undated]
Dear Monsieur,
I have been twice too satisfied with your deliveries not to turn to you once again. Could you not either from your kennels and apartments, or from your friends and acquaintances, find me a small griffon, thoroughbred or not (dog or bitch), and send it to me to Paris if an opportunity arises or by carrier. As regards the price I shall not consider that further than you did. However if you should wish to draw on me for a sum exceeding 50 centimes, I should be most grateful if you would warn me some months in advance as is always the custom in these parts.
Please accept, Monsieur le Comte, my sincere regards.
E. Degas
I think it in good taste to warn you that the person who desires the dog is Mlle. Cassatt, that she approached me, who am known for the quality of my dogs and for my affection for them as for my old friends etc. etc. I also think that it is useless to give you any information about the asker, whom you know for a good painter, at this moment engrossed in the study of the reflection and shadow of chairs or dresses, for which she has the greatest affection and understanding, not that she resigns herself to the use of only green and red for this effect which I consider the only salvation, etc. etc. etc.
This distinguished person whose friendship I honour, as you would in my place, asked me to recommend to you the youth of the subject. It is a young dog that she needs, so that he may love her.
By sending with the dog, if you do send the dog, you would give an appreciable pleasure to your requester, by sending with this dog some news of your health and of your noble pursuits.
* – Count Lepic besides being a great dog breeder was also a painter and engraver. He had taught Degas how to do monotoypes, some of which are signed by both Lepic and Degas. Degas represented Lepic several times: in the famous painting of the Place de la Concorde, where he walks behind his two little daughters, then in the picture where he sits behind Marcellin Desboutin (now in the Louvre), and in pastel.
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| Edgar Degas Le Cap Hornu près St. Valery-sur-Somme ca. 1890-93 color monotype British Museum |
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| Edgar Degas A Lake in the Pyrenees ca. 1890-93 color monotype British Museum |
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| Edgar Degas Femme nue debout à sa toilette (Nude woman with towel, standing) ca. 1891-92 lithograph British Museum |
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| Edgar Degas Four Dancers 1899 oil on canvas National Gallery of Art, Washington DC |
TO BARTHOLOMÉ
Naples, 17 Jan. 1886
. . .
They are not forgetting me in Paris, you are not the only one to write me, my good friend. But no one writes better or more affectionately than you do, not even the women. Young Jacques has had himself introduced to Mme Howland and his load of gossip will succeed there. Nihil humanum must be unbearable to bear. I am speaking of other times, for with the exception of the heart it seems to me that everything within me is growing old in proportion. And even this heart of mine has something artificial. The dancers have sewn it into a bag of pink satin, pink satin slightly faded, like their dancing shoes.
. . .
– all quoted passages are from Degas Letters, edited by Marcel Guérin, translated by Marguerite Kay (Oxford: Bruno Cassirer, 1947)