Edgar Degas

Portraits and Self-Portraits

May 14–July 18, 2004

Edgar Degas

Self-Portrait

c. 1857, etching and drypoint on paper (Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute)

Beyond his achievements as one of the leading painters of his generation, Edgar Degas was also a gifted graphic artist who produced a significant body of prints and drawings throughout his long career. He demonstrated his sensitivity to portraiture at a young age, using himself and his family members as models. In his mature works Degas increasingly experimented with unconventional poses to capture the personalities of his sitters. During the mid-1890s, he embraced the medium of photography and through it continued his self-analysis. Degas’s artist colleagues also found in him a willing subject for portraits that are occasionally humorous in tone.