拍品專文
Throughout his career, Degas was fascinated by adolescent girls as a subject for art. While his images of ballerinas in the dance studio are the most frequent expression of this interest, Degas also enjoyed depicting his young cousins and nieces, and the children of his friends; Jean Sutherland Boggs and Anne Maheux have suggested that the present work may depict one of the daughters of Degas's sister Marguerite de Gas Fevre (J.S. Boggs and A. Maheux, op. cit., p. 120). His images of adolescent girls often show them absorbed in a specific task, posed in an uncommon or even awkward fashion, unconscious of the viewer. The present work, depicting a girl sprawled on the floor, seemingly lost in reverie as she pages through an album, is an example of this tendency in the artist's oeuvre.
Degas frequently experimented with uncommon and eccentric perspectives in his pictures, and the viewpoint of the present picture is unusually high and close. Boggs and Maheux have described the pastel as follows:
The floor on which the girl lies is seen from the same height as
many of his ballet rehearsals but is covered by a more accommodating and highly decorative patterned rug. It is almost as if Degas had
embroidered it himself with his sticks of pastel, the pastel like a needle moving loosely and daringly through the fabric, creating a
dazzling pattern. (ibid., p. 120)
Degas frequently experimented with uncommon and eccentric perspectives in his pictures, and the viewpoint of the present picture is unusually high and close. Boggs and Maheux have described the pastel as follows:
The floor on which the girl lies is seen from the same height as
many of his ballet rehearsals but is covered by a more accommodating and highly decorative patterned rug. It is almost as if Degas had
embroidered it himself with his sticks of pastel, the pastel like a needle moving loosely and daringly through the fabric, creating a
dazzling pattern. (ibid., p. 120)