Live Auction 20989Impressionist & Modern Works on Paper Sale
EDGAR DEGAS (1834-1917)
Lot 649 PROPERTY OF A DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN

EDGAR DEGAS (1834-1917)

Portrait de femme

Closed19 November 2022

Estimate

USD 120,000–180,000

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EDGAR DEGAS (1834-1917)
Portrait de femme
stamped with signature 'Degas' (Lugt 658; lower left)
pastel on paper laid down on board
14 7/8 x 11 1/8 in. (37.5 x 28.3 cm.)
Drawn in 1878-1880

Estate of the artist; Third sale, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, 7-9 April 1919, lot 50/2.
Jos Hessel, Paris (acquired at the above sale).
Christian Tietzen-Lund, Copenhagen.
Chester H. Dale, Washington, D.C. and New York (by 1929).
Lilli Wulf, New York; Estate sale, Parke-Bernet Galleries, Inc., New York, 14 February 1951, lot 82.
Ned L. Pines, New York (acquired at the above sale); Estate sale, Sotheby's, New York, 14 November 1990, lot 260.
Private collection, California; sale, Christie's, New York, 14 November 1996, lot 110.
Private collection, New York; sale, Christie's, New York, 2 November 2005, lot 124.
Acquired at the above sale by the present owner.

Specialist note

The present pastel is exceptional among Degas' portraits in several respects. It depicts the head of the sitter en face, a rare view-point in the artist's portraiture, and moreover, the scale of the head relative to the sheet size is unusually large. The purpose of this drawing — whether it was intended as an independent work, or a study in preparation for another picture — has not been established, and the identity of the young woman remains unknown. Her costume and hairstyle are similar to those in several female portraits that Degas executed in the mid- and late 1870s, including Mme Jeantaud devant un miroir, circa 1875 (Lemoisne, vol. II, no. 371; coll. Musée d'Orsay, Paris). Chester Dale, the great American collector of Impressionist and Modern art, was an early owner of this pastel. Of the eight pictures by Degas in his collection, six, including the present pastel, were portraits.