Edgar Degas

Estate of the artist (sold: Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, 2e vente, December 11-13, 1918, lot 265)
Kunsthandel J. Goudstikker N.V., Amsterdam
Looted by the Nazi authorities, Amsterdam, July 1940
Sale: Frederik Muller & Co., Amsterdam, October 8-9, 1940, lot 11
Myrtel Frank, The Hague
Wildenstein & Co., New York
Marlborough Fine Art Ltd., London
Mr. & Mrs. Jan Mitchell, New York (acquired from the above in 1966)
The Israel Museum, Jerusalem (donated from the above through the American-Israel Cultural Foundation in 1970)
Restituted to Amsterdamse Negotiatie Compagnie N.V. (formerly Kunsthandel J. Goudstikker N.V.), February 2005

New York, Wildenstein & Co., A Loan Exhibition of Degas for the Benefit of the New York Infirmary, 1949, no. 89
London, Marlborough Fine Art Ltd., 19^th & 20^th Century Drawings, Watercolour, Sculpture, 1961, no. 2
London, Marlborough Fine Art Ltd., Masters of Modern Art, 1966, no. 30
Jerusalem, The Israel Museum, Recent Gifts and Gifts Promised, 1970
Jerusalem, The Israel Museum, Past and Present – The Jan Mitchell Gift to the Israel Museum, 1974
Jerusalem, The Israel Museum, Opening of the Floersheimer Pavilion, 1979
Jerusalem, The Israel Museum, The Tip of the Iceberg No. 1. 19^th Century French Drawings and Prints from the Museum’s Collection, 1983
Jersualem, The Israel Museum, One Hundred Works on Paper from the Collection of the Israel Museum, 1986, no. 28

Lillian Browse, Degas Dancers, London, 1949, no. 198a, illustrated pp. 400-401 
Douglas Cooper, Pastels by Edgar Degas, Basel, 1952, no. 29
Lillian Browse, "Degas's Grand Passion," Apollo, February 1967, fig. 19, pp. 104-114
Fiorella Minervino and Franco Russoli, L'opera completa di Degas, Milan, 1970, no. 1103, illustrated p. 135
Richard Kendall, Degas Beyond Impressionism (exhibition catalogue), Art Institute of Chicago, 1996, fig. 159, illustrated p. 140

During the 1890s Degas continued to explore the motif of the dancer with unwaivering devotion, working and reworking counterproofs of drawings and tracing elements of past drawings onto other sheets and beginning new compositions.  For many of the drawings that he completed in these later years, including the present work, Degas relied upon his memory more than on first-hand observation.  Due to his failing eyesight, he depended on his own vivid recollections of the Paris Opera and his earlier experiences drawing these young dancers as they stretched and relaxed back stage and in their studios. 

When it was sold at the second sale of the artist's estate, this drawing was given the misleading title of  Quatre danseuses en maillot, owing to the fact that it is a preliminary study for a finished pastel in which the dancers are clothed. In a catalogue from the Israel Museum, Meira Perry-Lehmann discusses the connection between this picture and others that Degas completed around the same time.  "In the Israel Museum drawing the dancers are arranged along the bench in an orderly diagonal line; studied here in the nude, they are fully clothed in the finished pastel (Art Gallery and Museum, Glasgow, William McInness Collection).  In fact, each of the four 'rats' -- the name given to young dancers in the corps de ballet -- had been studied separately by Degas (3e Vente Degas, April 7-9, 1919, lots 170 and 187) both in the nude and clothed.  Then in groups of two or three, the artist transformed the images into a soft-ground etching, touched with pastel" (Meira Perry-Lehmann, One Hundred Works on Paper from the Collection of the Israel Museum, Jerusalem, 1986, p. 84).

Jacques Goudstikker (1897-1940) was one of the foremost art dealers in the Netherlands prior to World War II. In May 1940, fearing persecution at the hands of the invading Nazis, he fled Europe by sea, taking his wife and young son with him. Although his wife and son reached safety, Jacques died on board ship, and the stock of his gallery, comprising over 1300 artworks, was looted by Hermann Göring. Goudstikker's important modern art collection, including this drawing, was liquidated in 1940 through Frederick Muller & Co. in Amsterdam. Marei von Saher, his daughter-in-law and sole heir, has for many years sought to recover the Goudstikker legacy. This drawing is one of several works that have been recovered. The Israel Museum returned the drawing in February of this year after joint research with von Saher’s representatives confirmed its provenance.