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Lot Essay
Bequeathed to the Philadelphia Museum of Art in 1985 by the Estate of Henry P. McIlhenny, Interior (fig. 1) is one of Edgar Degas' most admired compositions. By 1908, Georges Grappe, the first critic to discuss the painting, was convinced it was the artist's greatest achievement, 'among his masterpieces, the masterpiece.' For all the praise the picture received in the extensive literature, however, Interior remains the most puzzling of Degas' major works, a painting full of mystery and one still shrouded in mystery as far as interpretation is concerned, having inspired the most contradictory statements about its meaning, its literary source, its date of execution, and even its title (it is also known as The Rape). Degas himself never volunteered any clues as to the meaning of the picture, only referring to it as 'my genre picture.'
'Beauty is a mystery, but no one knows it any more. The recipes, the secrets are forgotten,' Degas told Daniel Halévy at the end of his life. At the time he painted Interior, however, his style, formed initially by teachers who were disciples of Ingres, and refined by prolonged study of Renaissance art, was still sufficiently precise that he had to struggle to attain the degree of tenebrous ambiguity he eventually did attain.
Degas achieved the desired effect by carefully studying each element of the composition separately. At first he executed a series of preparatory drawings focusing on the room's deep perspective in order to accentuate the space separating the seated woman from the standing man (fig. 2; Musée du Louvre, Cabinet des dessins), and then he turned to his brushes to study the pose and character of each figure through three works, including the present picture. Staring down at the seated woman who denies him any eye contact, and leaning against the door, stands the man in the shadows, sure of himself, preventing escape.
'Beauty is a mystery, but no one knows it any more. The recipes, the secrets are forgotten,' Degas told Daniel Halévy at the end of his life. At the time he painted Interior, however, his style, formed initially by teachers who were disciples of Ingres, and refined by prolonged study of Renaissance art, was still sufficiently precise that he had to struggle to attain the degree of tenebrous ambiguity he eventually did attain.
Degas achieved the desired effect by carefully studying each element of the composition separately. At first he executed a series of preparatory drawings focusing on the room's deep perspective in order to accentuate the space separating the seated woman from the standing man (fig. 2; Musée du Louvre, Cabinet des dessins), and then he turned to his brushes to study the pose and character of each figure through three works, including the present picture. Staring down at the seated woman who denies him any eye contact, and leaning against the door, stands the man in the shadows, sure of himself, preventing escape.