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Edgar Degas

Self-Portrait

1850-1860

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Edgar Degas

Self-Portrait

1850-1860

Physical Qualities Oil paint on paper mounted on canvas, Sheet: 230 x 178 mm. (9 1/16 x 7 in.)
Credit Line Saidie A. May Bequest Fund
Object Number 1953.205
Throughout his lifetime, Degas, like Rembrandt before him, produced a significant group of self-portraits. The dramatic shading of one side of his face focuses our attention on the artist’s eye. As we see in Odilon Redon’s drawing, The Eye (Vision), the eye is a window to the soul, a reference to the artist’s vision, and functions to symbolize a universal human creativity.
Baltimore Museum of Art by Purchase, M. Knoedler & Co., 1953; The Bomford Collection, London; Dr. Mellar, Budapest
The Essence of Line: French Drawings from Ingres to Degas
2011-09-19 00:00:00

The Renoir Returns
"The Saidie A. May Collection," The Baltimore Museum of Art Record 3:1 (1972), p. 54, ill. p. 54.
Baltimore Museum of Art, "Manet, Degas, Berthe Morisot and Mary Cassatt," April 18-June 3, 1962, p. 53, no. 32.
"A Picture Book: 200 Objects in The Baltimore Museum of Art," Baltimore, 1955, ill. p. 51.
Baltimore Museum of Art. The Essence of Line: French Drawings from Ingres to Degas. Baltimore, MD: Baltimore Museum of Art; Baltimore, MD: Walters Art Museum; University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2005, page 186, fig. 1.
"Self-Portrait by Edgar Degas," The Baltimore Museum of Art News, 16:2 (December 1953), p. 7.
P.A. Lemoisne, "Degas et son oeuvre," Paris, Paul Brame and C.M. De Hauke with Arts et Métiers Graphiques, 1946, no. 14.

Artist

Edgar Degas

1833–1916

French, 1834-1917
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