Head, Study for a Portrait of Mme Salle, original clay c. 1892, cast 1920/1926

West Building, Ground Floor — Gallery G3

Medium

copper alloy

Dimensions

overall without base: 13.9 x 9.9 x 12 cm (5 1/2 x 3 7/8 x 4 3/4 in.)

Credit Line

Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon

Accession Number

1995.47.16

Artists / Makers

Edgar Degas (sculptor) French, 1834 - 1917

Image Use

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Inscription

lower left side: degas [stamped replica of artist's signature]; on back of neck: Degas 7/G; stamped in same location: CIRE PERDUE AAHEBRARD

Marks and Labels

FM: A.A. HEBRARD

Provenance

(A.A. Hébrard, Paris), 1920/1926; sold 12 July 1926 to (Flechtheim, Düsseldorf).[1] P.W. Nerney;[2] (sale, Sotheby's, London, 30 April 1964, no. 176); purchased by Mr. Betts, possibly of (P. & D. Colnaghi & Co., Ltd., London),[3] for Paul Mellon [1907-1999], Upperville, Virginia; (sale, Sotheby's, London, 29 June 1988, no. 118, bought in); (sale, Kunsthaus Lempertz, Cologne, 4 June 1994, no. 116, bought in); gift 1995 to NGA.

[1] Anne Pingeot, Degas: Sculptures, Paris, 1991: cat. 69.

[2] The consignor's name was kindly provided by Eva Avloniti of Sotheby's London office (e-mail of 9 April 2003 to Anne Halpern, in NGA curatorial files).

[3] Betts (no first name cited) is the name of the buyer in the published sale price list, though Mellon collection records cite Colnaghi as the buyer. It is possible that Betts served as agent for Colnaghi, as he apparently did on other occasions, though there is nothing about the transaction in the Colnaghi ledgers under either Betts or Mellon. This information about Betts was kindly provided by Timothy Warner-Johnson of Colnaghi's (e-mail of 21 October 2004 to Anne Halpern; see also copy of Mellon collection records, both in NGA curatorial files).

Associated Names

Lempertz, Kunsthaus
Mellon, Paul
Nerney, P.W.
Sotheby's, London

Exhibition History

1974: Nineteenth-Century Sculpture, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1974, unnumbered checklist.

Bibliography

1991: Pingeot, Anne. Degas Sculptures. Paris, 1991: no. 69.

1995: Campbell, Sara. "A Catalogue of Degas' Bronzes." Apollo 142 (August 1995): 14, no. 7.

2002: Czestochowski, Joseph S., and Anne Pingeot. Degas--Sculptures. Catalogue Raisonné of the Bronzes. Memphis, 2002: 135.

2010: Lindsay, Suzanne Glover, Daphne S. Barbour, and Shelley G. Sturman. Edgar Degas Sculpture. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 2010: no. 62, 348-349, color repro.