Edgar Degas

Maurice Exteens, Le Vésinet
Paul Brame, Paris
The Lefevre Gallery (Alex Reid & Lefevre), London (acquired from the above in 1958)
Sale: Sotheby's, London, 2nd July 1969, lot 38
Norton Simon Foundation, Pasadena (sale: Sotheby's, London, 2nd April 1974, lot 44)
Ronald Segal, Surrey
Michael Stakol, South Africa
Sale: Sotheby's, London, 4th April 1989, lot 38
Purchased at the above sale by the present owner

Copenhagen, Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Edgar Degas 1834-1917: skulpturer og monotypier, tegninger og malerier, 1948, no. 98, illustrated in the catalogue
London, The Lefevre Gallery (Alex Reid and Lefevre), Degas Monotypes, Drawings, Pastels, Bronzes, 1958, no. 1, illustrated in the catalogue

Pierre Louys, Mimes des Courtisanes de Lucien, Paris, 1935, illustrated in colour opposite p. 28
Eugenia Parry Janis, Degas Monotypes. Essay, Catalogue & Checklist, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1968, no. 118, illustrated
Phillippe Brame and Theodore Reff, Degas et son œuvre, supplément, New York and London, 1984, p. 89, no. 81, illustrated

Degas frequently used monotypes as a base for fully worked pastels, as in the case of the present work, achieving a remarkable chromatic intensity and sense of light. Eugenia Parry Janis, describing the importance of monotypes within Degas' œuvre, considered that 'with the addition of pastel, they become major works from the beginning...  A rough count shows that one-fourth of all Degas' pastels have a monotype base. The fact that pastel eventually became Degas' major medium during a time when it was no one else's (1880s), seems to indicate Degas found in the combination of pastel and monotype a medium suited to his particular artistic needs' (E. P. Janis, op. cit., p. XXVIII).