Buste de jeune homme, études pour La fille de Jephté

Details

Edgar Degas (1834-1917)
Buste de jeune homme, études pour La fille de Jephté
stamped with signature 'Degas' (Lugt 658; lower left)
pencil on paper
13 1/8 x 8¼ in. (33.3 x 21 cm.)
Drawn in 1859-1860

Provenance

Studio of the artist, Fourth Sale, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, 2-4 July 1919, lot 124c.
Jean d'Alayer, Paris.
Charles E. Slatkin Galleries, New York.
David Daniels, New York (acquired from the above, 1956); sale, Christie's, New York, 11 May 1995, lot 302.
M.W. Brady & Co., Inc., New York (acquired at the above sale).
Acquired from the above by the present owner.

Literature

E. Mitchell, "La fille de Jepthé par Degas: genèse et évolution," Gazette des Beaux-Arts, October 1937, vol. XVIII, pp. 185-186 (illustrated, fig. 21).

Exhibited

Bern, Kunstmuseum, Exposition Degas, November 1951-January 1952, no. 160.
Amsterdam, Stedelijk Museum, Exposition Degas, February-March 1952, no. 90 (titled Studie van jongeman).
Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Drawings, Paintings and Sculpture from Three Private Collections, July-August 1960, no. 13.
New York, Charles E. Slatkin Galleries, The Many-Sided Artist, March 1961, no. 7 (with incorrect dimensions).
Northampton, Massachusetts, Smith College, Museum of Art, 1966-1967 (on loan).
Minneapolis Institute of Arts; Chicago, The Art Institute; Kansas City, Missouri, William Rockhill Nelson Gallery-Mary Atkins Museum; Cambridge, Fogg Art Museum, and Waterville, Maine, Colby College, Art Museum, Selections from the Drawings Collection of David Daniels, February 1968-February 1969, no. 47 (illustrated).
Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, Edgar Degas: The Reluctant Impressionist, June-September 1974, no. 67 (with incorrect dimensions).
Atlanta, High Museum of Art, Degas & America, The Early Collectors, February-October 2001, p. 103, no. 10 (illustrated in color, p. 102).

Lot Essay

Following his return to Paris in 1859 after a three-year stay in Italy, Degas began the first of his largest history paintings La fille de Jephté (Lemoisne, no. 94; coll. Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton, Massachusetts), which he intended to exhibit at the Salon. In the Biblical story recounted in the Book of Judges, Jephthah vows to sacrifice the first person to greet him upon his return if his Israelite army is victorious over the Ammonites. To his horror, the victim proves to be his daughter, his only child, who is about to be married. This story, with its similarity to the Greek legend of Agamemnon and Iphigenia, appealed to the Romantic sensibility of Degas's generation.

The lower figure in this drawing is related to the trumpeter who appears in the upper left corner of the final composition. The figure above him is probably an early idea for the soldier who leads Jephthah's horse.

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