Self-Portrait with White Collar

c. 1857

Edgar Degas

Painter, French, 1834 - 1917

The face of a young man with peachy-colored skin and dark hair fills this vertical painting. The man is lit from our left but is angled to slightly to our right, so his face is mostly in shadow. He looks at us from the corners of large, dark eyes. He has a straight nose, and his full lips are set in a line. He has a moustache and a trimmed beard that appears to connect under his chin, though this area is loosely painted so details are difficult to make out. His black hair is parted to one side and curls in a wave over his high forehead. Dark lapels connect over a white undergarment or scarf around his neck. The background is filled in with a chestnut-brown wash, and brushstrokes are visible throughout.

Media Options

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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    oil on paper on canvas

  • Credit Line

    Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon

  • Dimensions

    overall: 20.5 x 15 cm (8 1/16 x 5 7/8 in.)
    framed: 29.9 x 24.1 x 4.4 cm (11 3/4 x 9 1/2 x 1 3/4 in.)

  • Accession

    1995.47.7

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

The artist; his nephew, Edmond Degas.[1] Marcel Guérin, from at least 1924;[2] sold 1958 through Arthur Goldschmidt to (Walter Feilchenfeldt, Zurich);[3] sold 1959 through (Germain Seligmann, New York) to Mr. Paul Mellon, Upperville, VA; gift 1995 to NGA.
[1] An inscription on the center horizontal stretcher member reads: "Edgar Degas par lui meme / né en 1834. . .vers 1857. . . / non passé avec vente de l'atelier. . . / acheté de son neveux Edmond Degas". The first of the artist's studio sales was in early May 1918.
[2] Guerin lent the painting to an exhibition in Paris in 1924.
[3] See correspondence from Walter Feilchenfeldt dated 6 February 2006 in NGA curatorial files. An inscription reading "Eigentümer / Dr WF Zurich" is on the back of the stretcher.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1924

  • Exposition Degas au profit de la Ligue Franco-Anglo-Américaine contre le cancer: Peintures, pastels et dessins, sculptures, eaux-fortes, lithographies et monotypes, Galeries Georges Petit (sculpture shown at Galerie A.A. Hébrard), Paris, 1924, no. 2.

1931

  • Degas: Portraitiste, Sculpteur, Musée de L'Orangerie, Paris, 1931, no. 14.

1955

  • Degas dans les collections françaises, Gazette des Beaux-Arts, Paris, 1955, no. 7.

1966

  • French Paintings from the Collections of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon and Mrs. Mellon Bruce, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1966, no. 47, repro.

1999

  • An Enduring Legacy: Masterpieces from the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1999-2000, no cat.

2013

  • Intimate Impressionism from the National Gallery of Art, Museo dell'Ara Pacis Augustae, Rome (exhibition title in this venue: Impressionist Gems); California Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco; McNay Art Museum, San Antonio; Mitsubishi Ichigokan Museum, Tokyo, Seattle Art Museum, 2013-2016, pl. 28.

Bibliography

1931

  • Guérin, Marcel. Dix-neuf portraits de Degas par lui-même. Paris, 1931: unnumbered, repro.

1966

  • Goldwater, Robert. "The Glory that was France." Art News 65 (March 1966): 42.

1970

  • Minervino 1970, no. 122

1984

  • Lemoisne 1946 [revised edition, 1984], no. 31

Wikidata ID

Q20188389

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