Programme de la soirée artistique du 15 mai 1884 (Galerie Ponsin)

In May and June of 1884, Degas completed four drawings -- including the present lot -- and a preliminary etching in four states for the program cover of a benefit concert for the Lycée in Nantes. Two of the drawings were owned by the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston, until they were stolen during one of the nation's most notorious art heists on 18 March 1990. The whereabouts of these works are still unknown today.