Edgar Degas

warm-toned, pencil notations on the reverse, accompanied by the original frame backboard with Artine Artinian’s collection stamp, and inscription and subject identification in ink, framed, 1895

Originally from the collection of Artine Artinian

Beaussant Lefèvre, Paris, 1993

Santa Barbara Museum of Art, in conjunction with Delacroix to Monet: Masterpieces of 19th Century Painting from the Walters Art Museum, January - May 2010

Antoine Terasse, Degas et la Photographie (Paris, 1983), pl. 12

Malcolm Daniel, Edgar Degas: Photographer (The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1998), pl. 26

John Szarkowski, Peter Galassi, et al., A Personal View: Photography in the Collection of Paul F. Walter (The Museum of Modern Art, 1985), pl. 44

This photograph is on double-weight paper with a matte surface and a pleasing warm tonality. There is age-appropriate silvering in the dark areas. The print has very slim white borders on the top, right, and bottom edges, and there is scattered inconsequential wear to the edges and corners. The print is essentially in excellent condition. The original backboard is thick multi-ply board that is worn at the edges, and has losses where nails had been set to affix it into a frame. Artine's inscription appears at the uppermost portion of the board, and the subject identification, which appears to be in a different hand, is at the bottom. Artine's oval collection stamp is in red ink and is on the lower left.
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Edgar Degas’s small but sophisticated body of work in the photographic medium has only recently been given serious scholarly attention.  As Degas authority Malcolm Daniel has noted, in the mid-1890s the painter ‘turned his restless imagination and fertile creativity to photography with the same passion he had brought to his work in other media, [producing] a series of mesmerizing photographs’ (Edgar Degas, Photographer, p. 11).

A few of Degas’s photographs served, inevitably, as studies for pastels and paintings.  Others explored photography’s capabilities, such as his double-exposures.  Many documented his friends and families.  All showed his keen understanding of photography as a flexible creative tool. 

The present image shows two greats: the Impressionist painter Auguste Renoir (seated) and the symbolist poet Stéphane Mallarmé.  The double-portrait is a study of regards: Renoir coolly appraises Degas and his camera, while Mallarmé gazes down upon the painter. In the mirror are the diffuse reflections of Mallarmé’s wife and daughter.

The collection stamp on the accompanying frame backing is that of the renowned scholar and collector of French literature, Artine Artinian (1907-2005).  Artinian was an authority and prolific translator of the work of Guy de Maupassant.  During his nearly 30-year tenure at Bard College, the shrewd Artinian amassed, through purchase and trade, one of the great collections of French literary manuscripts and books, as well as portraits of famous subjects. He donated and sold portions of his collection to the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas, Bowdoin College, and other institutions.