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Edgar Degas, artist
French, 1834 - 1917
Femme s*essuyant (Seated Bather Drying Her Neck), circa 1890 - 1900
pastel on two sheets of paper mounted on board
68.7 x 58.1 cm (sheet)
Gift of Mrs. John Jay Ide 1995.62

Artist Credit: all

Artist Biography: Born Hilaire Germain Edgar De Ga. Father was a prominent banker. His father and grandfather signed their names *De Gas*, as did the artist until ca. 1870. He studied at the Lycee Louis-le-Grand and briefly at law school but was most interested in becoming an artist; in 1853 he began to copy at the Louvre. He entered the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in 1855 and from 1856 to 1859 lived in Italy, studying the old masters and working from the model. In Italy again in 1860, he completed his first great painting, The Bellelli Family (Paris, Musee d'Orsay). His early work was mainly portraiture and large classical compositions, and he contributed regularly to the Salon from 1865 to 1870. His first sculptures date from the mid-sixties. A trip to New Orleans in 1872-73 resulted in his famous painting of the cotton buyers' office (Pau, Musee des Beaux-Arts). Back in Paris in 1874, he helped organize the first impressionist exhibition and contributed to all but one of the subsequent group shows, although his many paintings of the ballet and opera, cafe scenes, horse races, and other aspects of metropolitan life are distinct in style and subject matter from the work of his impressionist colleagues. About 1892 Degas began to work primarily in pastels. Plagued by ill health and near blindness after about 1900, his style became increasingly broad, and by 1910 he had ceased working.~~Reference: Edgar Degas, 9th volume of Le peintre-graveur illustrÈ by Loys Delteil (Paris: Loys Delteil, 1919);~Degas Gravures et monotypes by Jean AdhÈmar et FranÁoise Cachin (Paris: Arts et Metiers Graphiques, 1973);~Edgar Degas: The painter as printmaker by Sue Welsh Reed and Barbara Stern Shapiro (Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, 1984)~

Related Keywords
Neck Her Drying Bather Seated s*essuyant Femme Ide Jay John Mrs Gift Europe France Drawing board mounted paper sheets two pastel Edgar Degas French A066490 1995.62 AFGA