Degas' Drawings

H. G. E. Degas

• Publisher: Dover Publications
• Year: 2012
• ISBN:
  9780486139364
• Topic: Arte
• Subtopic: Monografías de artistas

French artist Hilaire Germaine Edgar Degas (1834–1917) is best known for his studies of the human figure, his ballet dancers, his portraits, and his occupational groups. In his drawings, Degas's working methods can be seen and studied, and his always-human figures can be enjoyed as much as in the finished works — if not more.
Reproduced in this book are 100 of Degas's drawings, including eight in full color. They range from early studies to portraits of Manet, Madame Hertel, Madame Camus, Durnaty, and others to sketches of dancers and nudes, race track scenes, travel scenes, and other works from 1856 to 1900. The drawings reflect Degas's outstanding way of capturing scenes and his development of the careful casualness that was to make him foremost among the Realist-Romantic artists. The images also reveal his new uses of space and artistic focus, qualities he received from other artists in the Impressionist group. There are works in varied media — pencil, crayon, pastel, charcoal, and many others — and there are studies for paintings and sculptures that show his working methods.
Most of these drawings cannot be seen anywhere else in published form. The edition from which these drawings were taken now commands high prices on the rare book market, when it can be found. Art students, collectors, and others who want to see the many styles of Degas will find that this collection contains many of his finest works.

LIST OF PLATES

Dimensions are given in millimeters, height before width.

COLOR

The color plates appear between plates 22 and 23.

1. Portrait of a girl. Ca. 1863-65. Oil drawing on ocher paper. 360 × 250. Study for the right-hand figure in the painting Portrait of the Bellelli Family.
2. The ballet master. Signed and dated 1875. Oil drawing on greenish ocher paper. 475 × 300. Study for the painting Ballet Class in the Louvre. The subject is probably the great choreographer Perrot.
3. Dancer adjusting her slipper. Ca. 1875-78. Oil drawing on pink paper. 380 × 310.
4. Woman undressing. Ca. 1875. Oil on ocher paper transferred to canvas. 610 × 500. Perhaps an early study for the painting The Rape.
5. Dancers at the bar. 1877. Oil drawing on Veronese green paper. 465 × 610. Study for the painting.
6. Two studies for a café-concert singer. Ca. 1878-80. Charcoal and pastel on gray paper. 575 × 445. Signed.
7. Women ironing. Ca. 1878-82. Charcoal and pastel. 600 × 760. Study for the painting. Signed.
8. Two dancers. Ca. 1884-86. Charcoal and pastel. 600 × 450. Signed.

BLACK AND WHITE

1. Old Roman beggarwoman. Dated “Rome, 1856.” Black crayon on light green paper. 420 × 370.
2. Male nude, foreshortened. Ca. 1856-58. Lead pencil. 230 × 155.
3. Italian landscape. Dated “Tivoli, 1857.” Charcoal and chalk on gray-green paper. 300 × 480.
4. Portrait of an elderly lady sewing. Initialed and dated “August 26, 1859, Paris.” Charcoal. 290 × 350.
5. Portrait of Mme. Hertel. Ca. 1860. Lead pencil. 248 × 160.
6. Portrait of a girl with a cap. Ca. 1860-61. Lead pencil. 290 × 220.
7. Sleeping child. Ca. 1860-61. Lead pencil. 265 × 190.
8. The painter J.-J. Tissot. Ca. 1861. Charcoal. 310 × 350. Study for a painting.
9. Drapery study. 1861. Lead pencil and gouache on gray paper. 305 × 210. Study for the unfinished painting Semiramis Building a City.
10. Drapery study. 1861. Lead pencil. 302 × 224. Another study for Semiramis. Signed.
11. Standing girl resting her arm on a table. Ca. 1861-63. Lead pencil. 290 × 185. Study for a painting.
12. Portrait of a woman reclining in an armchair with a magazine on her lap. Ca. 1861-63. Lead pencil. 240 × 450.
13. Landscape in the Département de l’Orne (Normandy). Ca. 1861-64. Pen and sepia wash. 253 × 190. Like No. 14, from the sketchbook of Degas’ visit with the Valpinçon family in Le Mesnil-Hubert (Orne).
14. Two views of the village of Exmes (Orne). Ca. 1861-64. Pen and sepia wash. 174 × 770 and 166 × 700.
15. Portrait of ...