Monday, September 5, 2016

Paintings & Pastels (1860-1890) by Edgar Degas

Edgar Degas
Jephthah's Daughter
ca. 1860
oil on canvas
Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton, Massachusetts

At the beginning of his artistic career, between 1860 and 1865, Edgar Degas painted five ambitious historical scenes in oil on canvas (seen here in chronological order). For the young Degas, the tradition of "history painting" still retained its high claim to prestige. The fifth of these experimental compositions dramatized a subject from the American Civil War. It was called The Sufferings of the City of New Orleans. Degas chose that painting to make his debut at the Paris Salon in 1865, but was then disappointed at its poor reception. After that, the artist abandoned history painting, making no further attempts to update the genre.

Edgar Degas
Young Spartans Exercising
1860
oil on canvas
National Gallery, London

Edgar Degas
Semiramis Building Babylon
1861
oil on canvas
Musée d'Orsay, Paris

Edgar Degas
Alexander and Bucephalus
1861-62
oil on canvas
National Gallery of Art, Washington DC

Edgar Degas
The Sufferings of the City of New Orleans
1865
oil on paper, mounted on canvas
Musée d'Orsay, Paris

Edgar Degas
Portrait of Thérèse de Gas
ca. 1865
oil on canvas
Musée d'Orsay, Paris

Edgar Degas
Double Portrait - The Cousins of the Painter
1865
oil on canvas
Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, Connecticut

Edgar Degas
Woman Ironing
1869
oil on canvas
Neue Pinakothek, Munich

Edgar Degas
At the Races in the Countryside
1869
oil on canvas
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Edgar Degas
Madame Camus at the Piano
1869
oil on canvas
private collection

Edgar Degas
The Pedicurist
1873
oil on paper, mounted on canvas
Musée d'Orsay, Paris

Edgar Degas
Madame Jeantaud in the Mirror
1875
oil on canvas
Musée d'Orsay, Paris

Edgar Degas
Music-Hall Singer
1875-77
gouache and pastel over monotype
private collection

Edgar Degas
Café Concert at Les Ambassadeurs
1876
pastel over monotype
Musée des Beaux-Arts, Lyon

Edgar Degas
Aux Ambassadeurs - Mademoiselle Bécat
ca. 1877-85
pastel over lithograph
private collection

Edgar Degas
Women on the Terrace of a Café
ca. 1877
pastel
Musée d'Orsay, Paris

Edgar Degas
Dancers in the Wings
ca. 1880
pastel and tempera on paper
Norton Simon Museum, Pasadena

Edgar Degas
Girl with Hat
ca. 1887-90
oil on canvas
private collection