2005.79: Portrait of a Woman, after a Drawing in the Uffizi then attributed to Leonardo da Vinci

Identification and Creation

Object Number

2005.79

People

Hilaire-Germain-Edgar Degas, French (Paris, France 1834 - 1917 Paris, France)

Title

Portrait of a Woman, after a Drawing in the Uffizi then attributed to Leonardo da Vinci

Classification

Drawings

Work Type

drawing

Date

1858 - 1859

Culture

French

Persistent Link

https://hvrd.art/o/1423

Physical Descriptions

Medium

Graphite on off-white wove paper

Dimensions

36.8 x 28 cm (14 1/2 x 11 in.)
frame: 56.8 × 48.6 × 2.9 cm (22 3/8 × 19 1/8 × 1 1/8 in.)

Inscriptions and Marks

• stamp: l.l., red ink: [Degas Atelier Stamp]

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History

[Fourth sale of the estate of Edgar Degas at the Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, July 2-4, 1919, lot 114a, sold]; [to Durand-Ruel, New York (1919-?), sold]; to Lillie P. Bliss, New York (?-1934), bequest; to Museum of Modern Art, New York (1934-1943), deaccessioned and sold; [through Jacques Seligmann & Co., New York, 1943]; to Robert L. Rosenwald, Jenkintown, PA (1943-?). Possibly Private Collection (?-1985), sold; [through Sotheby’s, New York, February 21, 1985, lot 154]; to David M. Leventhal, New York and London (1985-2005), partial and promised gift; to the Fogg Art Museum, 2005.

Notes:
1. The drawing shared a frame with and was sold with three other drawings at the 1919 Degas estate sale (lots 114a-c). One of the other drawings (lot 114b) was bequeathed to the Fogg Art Museum in 1965 (1965.265).
2. Lillie P. Bliss passed away in 1931 and her bequest to the Museum of Modern Art was finalized 3 years late, according to the terms of her will (which called for an adequate endowment fund to be secured in that interval).
3. In a sales room announcement for the February 21, 1985 sale, Sotheby’s publicized that Robert L. Rosenwald should additionally be listed as a previous owner of the drawing. Since Rosenwald was identified as a previous owner, it is likely that he was not the private collector offering the work at the sale, but that instead the drawing belonged to another private collector at the time. If this is the case, it is unclear when the drawing was acquired by the unknown private collector. In his 1973 book “The History of Impressionism, “ John Rewald lists the drawing as still being in the collection of Robert L. Rosenwald.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line

Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Partial and Promised Gift of David M. Leventhal '71 in honor of Marjorie B. Cohn

Object Number

2005.79

Division

European and American Art

Contact

am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu

Permissions

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Publication History

• Catalogue des tableaux, pastels et dessins par Edgar Degas et provenant de son atelier 4e vente, July 2-4, 1919, auct. cat., Galerie Georges Petit (Paris, France, July 2 - July 4, 1919), lot 114a, p. 108, repr.
• The Museum of Modern Art, Memorial Exhibition: The Collection of the Late Miss Lizzie P. Bliss, exh. cat., The Plandome Press (New York, NY, 1931), no. 64, repr.
• The Lillie P. Bliss Collection, The Museum of Modern Art (New York, NY, 1934), no. 31, repr.
• Paul André Lemoisne, Degas et son Oeuvre, Paul Brame and Cesar M. de Hauke (Paris, France, 1946-1949), vol. 1, repr. opposite p. 30, fig. a and vol. 2, under cat. no. 53, p. 24
• John Rewald, The History of Impressionism [1st ed.], The Museum of Modern Art (New York, NY, 1946), p. 55, repr.
• 19th Century French Drawings, exh. cat., California Palace of the Legion of Honor (San Francisco, CA, 1947), no. 86 p. 55
• Jakob Rosenberg, Great Draughtsmen from Pisanello to Picasso, Harvard University Press (Cambridge, MA, 1959), p. 107, repr. pl. 196a
• Bernard Berenson, I disegni dei pittori fiorentini, Electa Editrice (Milan, Italy, 1961), p. 460, repr. fig. 972
• Jean Leymarie and Henri Loyrette, Degas e L'Italia, exh. cat., Fratelli Palombi Editori (Rome, 1984), under cat. no. 21, p. 80
• Impressionist and Modern Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture, auct. cat., Sotheby's (New York, February 21, 1985), lot 154, repr.
• Jean Sutherland Boggs, Degas, exh. cat., Metropolitan Museum of Art / National Gallery of Canada (New York, NY and Ottawa, Canada, 1988), p. 76, repr. fig. 33
• Christopher Reed, "Mad for Degas", Harvard Magazine (July 2005 - August 2005), vol. 107, no. 6, pp. 40-45, p. 44, ill.
• Marjorie B. Cohn and Jean Sutherland Boggs, Degas at Harvard, exh. cat., Harvard University Art Museums/Yale University Press (Cambridge and New Haven, 2005), cat. no. 54, fig. 14 (color), p. 32
• Musée d'Art moderne André Malraux, Ville du Havre, De Delacroix à Marquet: Donation Senn-Foulds, Dessins, exh. cat., Somogy Éditions d'Art (Paris, France, 2011), repr. p. 116 [in fig. 44 reproducing lot 114 from the 1919 Degas atelier sale]
• Henri Loyrette, Degas: A New Vision, exh. cat., National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne and The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (Melbourne/Houston, 2016), p. 46, repr. p. 46

Exhibition History

• Memorial Exhibition: The Collection of the Late Miss Lizzie P. Bliss, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 05/17/1931 - 09/27/1931
• 19th century French drawings, California Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco, 03/08/1947 - 04/06/1947
• Degas at Harvard, Harvard University Art Museums, Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Cambridge, 08/01/2005 - 11/27/2005
• Degas: A New Vision, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Houston, 10/16/2016 - 01/16/2017

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