at Sean Kelly TEFAF New York 2026, Stand 330
Edgar Degas - TEFAF NY 2026
Edgar Degas (French, b. Paris 1834, d. Paris 1917)
Head-Image
Edgar Degas
Étude de mains (Étude pour Madame Gaujelin), 1867
pencil on board
unframed: 4 3/4 x 7 3/4 inches (12.1 x 19.7 cm)
framed: 18 x 21 inches (45.7 x 53.3 cm)
(ED-1)
Provenance:
The artist.
Estate of the artist.
René de Gas, Paris.
Odette de Gas et Roland Nepveu, Paris.
Arlette Nepveu-Degas, Paris.
Christie's New York, Impressionist and Modern Works on Paper, Lot 105 / Sale No. 1833 on 5/10/07.
Private Collection, New York (acquired from the above).
Edgar Degas, Joséphine Gaujelin, 1867, oil on canvas, 61.2 x 45.7 cm (24 1/8 x 18 in.), Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.
This drawing is a study for Edgar Degas’ painting Joséphine Gaujelin, 1867 in the permanent collection of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston, MA.
Joséphine Gaujelin was a dancer at the Paris opera in the 1860s to the early 1870s and later worked at the Théâtre du Gymnase as an actress. Degas used her as a model on several occasions, for example as a ballerina in The Dance Class (permanent collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art) according to Richard Lingner’s essay "Portrait of Joséphine Gaujelin," in Eye of the Beholder, edited by Alan Chong et al. (Boston: ISGM and Beacon Press, 2003): 195.
Étude de mains, with its fine but strong pencil lines and softer areas of shading, is typical of Degas’ drawings of the late 1860s. Degas’ close examination of his model’s hands is not only visible in his drawings but in the finished oil painting. The prominent display of Mme Gaujelin’s folded hands is so striking in the portrait that the work was often referred to as La femme aux mains jointes.
Installation View: Edgar Degas, Joséphine Gaujelin, 1867, oil on canvas, 61.2 x 45.7 cm (24 1/8 x 18 in.), Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.
Edgar Degas
Études pour "La répétition de danse", circa 1874
charcoal on grey laid paper
paper: 18 5/8 x 12 inches (47.3 x 30.5 cm)
framed: 29 1/8 x 23 1/2 inches (74 x 59.7 cm)
stamped and with the number that corresponds to the photograph taken during the studio inventory 'Ph 692 2326 ATELIER ED. DEGAS' (on the reverse; Lugt 657)
(ED-3)
Provenance:
The artist.
Atelier of the artist.
René de Gas, Paris (by descent).
Odette de Gas and Roland Nepveu, Paris (by descent).
Arlette Nepveu-Degas, Paris (by descent).
Christie's Paris, Atelier Degas sale, Lot 38 / Sale No. 15068 on 3/23/17.
Private Collection, New York (acquired from the above).
Edgar Degas (French, b. Paris 1834, d. Paris 1917) was an Impressionist artist famous for his pastel drawings and oil paintings.
Degas also produced bronze sculptures, prints, and drawings. Degas is especially identified with the subject of dance; more than half of his works depict dancers. Although Degas is regarded as one of the founders of Impressionism, he rejected the term, preferring to be called a realist, and did not paint outdoors as many Impressionists did.
Degas was a superb draftsman, and particularly masterly in depicting movement, as can be seen in his rendition of dancers and bathing female nudes. In addition to ballet dancers and bathing women, Degas painted racehorses and racing jockeys, as well as portraits. His portraits are notable for their psychological complexity and their portrayal of human isolation.
At the beginning of his career, Degas wanted to be a history painter, a calling for which he was well prepared by his rigorous academic training and close study of classical Western art. In his early thirties he changed course, and by bringing the traditional methods of a history painter to bear on contemporary subject matter, he became a classical painter of modern life.