Edgar Degas
Drew dancers, laundresses and racehorses from angles nobody had thought to use.
Edgar Degas was born in Paris in 1834 into a banking family and trained in the classical manner under a pupil of Ingres, which is why the draughtsmanship never loosens even when the subject does. He exhibited with the Impressionists but disliked the label and worked indoors, from memory and from studies rather than from nature: the ballet rehearsal rooms, the milliners, the laundresses, the racecourse, the woman in the tub, composed with the cropping and the raised viewpoint he took from Japanese prints and from photography. As his sight failed he turned increasingly to pastel and to modelling in wax. He died in Paris in 1917.
The bronzes are the item most often misunderstood. Degas cast almost nothing in his lifetime; the familiar bronzes, including the Little Dancer Aged Fourteen, were cast from the wax models found in the studio after his death, in editions and under the estate, and later unauthorised casts and surmoulages exist in quantity. Foundry mark, letter or number, and documented provenance are therefore essential rather than desirable. The pastels and monotypes are unique and extremely light-sensitive. The Lemoisne catalogue is the standard reference for the paintings and pastels.
If you own a work by Edgar Degas
Send photographs and whatever paperwork came with it. The first question is what the work actually is — edition or unique, when, and in what condition — because everything else follows from the answer. A valuation costs nothing and commits you to nothing.
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