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Lot Essay
The present picture is a fine and characteristic example of a series of pastel portraits that Degas executed during the 1880s. It depicts an unidentified woman in her early twenties, distinguished by her upturned nose, strong brows, and gentle, thoughtful demeanor. Degas also made a small, roughly worked oil painting of the same model, which Lemoisne describes as a replica of the present picture and dates to the same time (fig. 1). The latter work once formed part of the Havemeyer collection, and now hangs in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. It has also been suggested that an oil sketch of a young woman yawning that Lemoisne assigns to the mid-1870s may depict the same sitter (L. 370; Private Collection).
According to Jean Sutherland Boggs, Degas's portraits -- which constitute one-fifth of his entire oeuvre -- are "more subtle and varied than any other painter's in France in the second half of the nineteenth century" (J.S. Boggs, Portraits by Degas, Berkeley, 1962, p. 2). Although Degas devoted less time to portraiture in the second half of his career, some of his greatest interpretations of the genre -- including the masterful pictures of the Rouart family -- date to this later period. In the 1880s and the 1890s, his portraits are unified by several characteristics, all of which are clearly evident in the present example. First, the later portraits tend to be simply composed, the space shallow and the viewpoint near eye level. While they retain a keen sense of observation, their overall mood is gentle and benevolent, with none of the acerbic wit of certain earlier examples. Moreover, Degas usually positions his sitters against a neutral background in the later works, rather than depicting them in a readily identifiable social setting as he had in the 1860s and 1870s. By this time, Boggs explains, "[Degas] was more unselfconsciously subjective -- apparently feeling no need to find justification by recreating the reality of contemporary life" (J.S. Boggs, "Degas Portraitist," in F. Baumann and M. Karabelnik, eds., Degas Portraits, exh. cat., Kunsthaus, Zurich, 1994, pp. 65-66).
With its strong, independent contours and subtle, muted tonalities, the present picture also exemplifies Degas's renewed emphasis on drawing during the mid-1880s. Around 1885, Degas commented to Walter Sickert about the high-keyed palettes of Monet, Renoir, and Pissarro, "They are all exploiting the possibilities of color. And I am always begging them to exploit the possibilities of drawing. It is the richer field..." (quoted in J.S. Boggs, ed., Degas, exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1988, p. 368).
(fig. 1) Edgar Degas, Portrait de jeune femme, circa 1885, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
According to Jean Sutherland Boggs, Degas's portraits -- which constitute one-fifth of his entire oeuvre -- are "more subtle and varied than any other painter's in France in the second half of the nineteenth century" (J.S. Boggs, Portraits by Degas, Berkeley, 1962, p. 2). Although Degas devoted less time to portraiture in the second half of his career, some of his greatest interpretations of the genre -- including the masterful pictures of the Rouart family -- date to this later period. In the 1880s and the 1890s, his portraits are unified by several characteristics, all of which are clearly evident in the present example. First, the later portraits tend to be simply composed, the space shallow and the viewpoint near eye level. While they retain a keen sense of observation, their overall mood is gentle and benevolent, with none of the acerbic wit of certain earlier examples. Moreover, Degas usually positions his sitters against a neutral background in the later works, rather than depicting them in a readily identifiable social setting as he had in the 1860s and 1870s. By this time, Boggs explains, "[Degas] was more unselfconsciously subjective -- apparently feeling no need to find justification by recreating the reality of contemporary life" (J.S. Boggs, "Degas Portraitist," in F. Baumann and M. Karabelnik, eds., Degas Portraits, exh. cat., Kunsthaus, Zurich, 1994, pp. 65-66).
With its strong, independent contours and subtle, muted tonalities, the present picture also exemplifies Degas's renewed emphasis on drawing during the mid-1880s. Around 1885, Degas commented to Walter Sickert about the high-keyed palettes of Monet, Renoir, and Pissarro, "They are all exploiting the possibilities of color. And I am always begging them to exploit the possibilities of drawing. It is the richer field..." (quoted in J.S. Boggs, ed., Degas, exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1988, p. 368).
(fig. 1) Edgar Degas, Portrait de jeune femme, circa 1885, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York