EDGAR DEGAS (PARIS 1834-1917)

When he was student at the École des Beaux-arts in Paris in the mid-1850s, Degas roamed the halls of the Louvre copying old masters, but in particular ancient sculptures, including some of the most famous Greco-Roman works in the collection: Study of Athena detaching her sandal (Degas estate sale, Christie’s Paris, 3 March 2017, lot 26), a Study of the Borghese Gladiator (same sale, lot 23), or a bas-relief from the parapet of the temple of Athena Nike on the Acropolis (lot 18). The present study was made after a 1st Century Roman marble from the Borghese collection (inv. Ma 2244), depicting a boy wearing a toga (fig. 1).

Fig. 1. Rome, 1st Century, Statue of a boy wearing a toga. Musée du Louvre, Paris.