Académie d'homme

Edgar Degas used the academic nude as a form of personal artistic training. In his efforts at life drawing, Degas was seeking to understand the muscular power and undelying dynamics of the human body. His early mastery of this discipline derived from his own observations in life sessions, as well from the lessons of the old masters whose works he studied strenously during his stay in Italy.

Degas did not consider his drawings as casual productions. A collector of drawings himself, he was particularly proud of his collection which included 33 works by Ingres, 56 by Delacroix, and 12 by Manet.