Lot Essay
Degas' talent for portrait painting was apparent from the earliest stages of his artistic career and portraits were the most important works of the 1850s when he began to reveal the genius which was to distinguish the paintings of his maturity. However, Degas evidently found some trouble in reconciling his early ambitions with his talent. In 1858 Auguste Degas wrote to his son, "You find yourself bored painting portraits; you will have to overcome this eventually because they will be the most beautiful jewel in your crown" (Boggs, op. cit., p. 2). Nearly one fifth of Degas's entire oeuvre is portraiture. His first models were members of his own family; his father (Lemoisne 33), his brothers (Lemoisne 6, 7, 30; Brame & Reff 240) and sisters (Brame & Reff 24-27). "Mais les siens n'étaient pas toujours libres, pas toujours disposés à poser, aussi Degas fut-il lui-même, durant des longues années, son modèle préferé; toujours complaisant, toujours prêt. Et nombreuses sont les toiles où, inlassablement, d'un oeil sévère, oubliant certainement quel est le visage qu'il étudie, il scrute ses traits dans le miroir" (Lemoisne, op. cit., p. 14). During the 1850s and early 1860s Degas painted eighteen self-portraits (Lemoisne 2-5, 11-14, 31, 32, 37, 51, 103-105, 116; Brame & Reff 28-30) of which sixteen are busts and two are half-length. The majority of these are painted in oil on paper laid on canvas, like the present picture.
Paul Lafond perfectly describes the Degas of 1857 that we see in the present picture, "Plutôt petit que grand, la tête puissante, l'aspect narquois, le front haut, large, bombé, couronné d'une chevelure châtaine, soyeuse, les yeux vifs, malins, interrogateurs, enfoncés sur une haute arcade sourcilière, en forme d'accent circonflexe, le nez quelque peu retroussé, aux narines ouvertes, la bouche fine, à demi cachée, sous une barbe legère que le rasoir n'a jamais touchée" (J. J. Levêque, Degas, Paris, 1978,
p. 24).
At about the same date as he painted this picture Degas also made the celebrated etching Edgar Degas par lui-même which shows the same sensitive romantic and enquiring visage. Jean Sutherland Boggs writes, "His character had not been completely transformed from the Louvre portrait two years before, but his lower lip is somewhat withdrawn, he does wear his bulkier clothes more easily, and he stands with a greater independence as if ready, if not happy, to meet external challenges. In the play of light and shadow there is a suggestion of his increased response to the sensual side of his medium; this same quality exists in the beautiful small paintings (the present picture and Lemoisne 37) of himself in oil on paper which are related to this etching. He is still, however, the sort of young man who could have written in a notebook in Rome the spring before: 'Oh, how doubt and uncertainty tire me'." (Boggs, op. cit., pp. 10-11).
Degas never exhibited or sold any of his self-portraits (apart from impressions of the etching). His family also withdrew all the self-portraits from the studio sales. The present picture was inherited by the artist's niece, Jeanne Fèvre, in Nice.
Paul Lafond perfectly describes the Degas of 1857 that we see in the present picture, "Plutôt petit que grand, la tête puissante, l'aspect narquois, le front haut, large, bombé, couronné d'une chevelure châtaine, soyeuse, les yeux vifs, malins, interrogateurs, enfoncés sur une haute arcade sourcilière, en forme d'accent circonflexe, le nez quelque peu retroussé, aux narines ouvertes, la bouche fine, à demi cachée, sous une barbe legère que le rasoir n'a jamais touchée" (J. J. Levêque, Degas, Paris, 1978,
p. 24).
At about the same date as he painted this picture Degas also made the celebrated etching Edgar Degas par lui-même which shows the same sensitive romantic and enquiring visage. Jean Sutherland Boggs writes, "His character had not been completely transformed from the Louvre portrait two years before, but his lower lip is somewhat withdrawn, he does wear his bulkier clothes more easily, and he stands with a greater independence as if ready, if not happy, to meet external challenges. In the play of light and shadow there is a suggestion of his increased response to the sensual side of his medium; this same quality exists in the beautiful small paintings (the present picture and Lemoisne 37) of himself in oil on paper which are related to this etching. He is still, however, the sort of young man who could have written in a notebook in Rome the spring before: 'Oh, how doubt and uncertainty tire me'." (Boggs, op. cit., pp. 10-11).
Degas never exhibited or sold any of his self-portraits (apart from impressions of the etching). His family also withdrew all the self-portraits from the studio sales. The present picture was inherited by the artist's niece, Jeanne Fèvre, in Nice.