Edgar Degas, Dancer Touching Her Earring, Ten Ballet Sketches, Lithograph

Condition: Pre-Owned
Lithograph and stencil on vlin paper. Inscription: Unsigned and unnumbered, as issued. Paper Size: 17 x 13 inches. Excellent condition. Notes: From the folio, Degas, A Portfolio Of 10 Reproductions, Ten Ballet Sketches, 1945. Published by The Studio Publications, Inc., New York; rendered and printed by Albert Carman, City Island, in an edition of MMMD, 1945. Excerpted from the folio, Born in Paris in 1834, Edgar Degas lived, and surely loved the life of that city during most of his years. These continued somewhat sadly beyond those of most of his friends-into the debacle of the first World War, during which he died in 1917. Judging by the frequency with which he used them as models, he must have had an especial admiration for the ballet girls who followed a profession that at the time brought none of the glory and prosperity which attend it today. New aspects of the human body, revealed in movement, fascinated him. But his occupation with the simply anatomical side of his subjects never resulted in a cold interpretation. On the contrary there is a warmth and sympathy that pervades all of his work. The drawings reproduced here represent the painter in one important phase of his multi-sensitive view of life; and permit an insight which a more ambitious work might not do-into the operation of the creative process, the artist's transformation of reality as it passes through the mesh of his sensibilities.

EDGAR DEGAS (1834-1917) was a French Impressionist artist famous for his pastel drawings and oil paintings. Degas also produced bronze sculptures, prints, and drawings. Degas is especially identified with the subject of dance; more than half of his works depict dancers. Although Degas is regarded as one of the founders of Impressionism, he rejected the term, preferring to be called a realist, and did not paint outdoors as many Impressionists did. Degas was a superb draftsman, and particularly masterly in depicting movement, as can be seen in his rendition of dancers and bathing female nudes. In addition to ballet dancers and bathing women, Degas painted racehorses and racing jockeys, as well as portraits. His portraits are notable for their psychological complexity and their portrayal of human isolation. At the beginning of his career, Degas wanted to be a history painter, a calling for which he was well prepared by his rigorous academic training and close study of classical Western art. In his early thirties he changed course, and by bringing the traditional methods of a history painter to bear on contemporary subject matter, he became a classical painter of modern life. Generations of artists, including Picasso, have been influenced by Degas.
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