A black and white photograph showing a seated man leaning and gazing away from the camera.
Photo © President and Fellows of Harvard College
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Photo © President and Fellows of Harvard College

An interior scene featuring an older bearded man in a three-piece suit and a black bowtie. The man’s face is well-lit and in three-quarter view, his gaze looking outward. He has wavy grey hair that is combed to one side and flows to his short beard and mustache. He has heavy eyelids and a prominent long nose, with mouth slightly ajar as if preparing to speak. He is leaning on a pedestal with his left elbow, with the top of his hand slightly visible in a relaxed posture. The background is in shadow, with suggestions of a library bookshelf and a sculptural portrait bust on the pedestal he leans on.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
P1997.42
People
Hilaire-Germain-Edgar Degas, French (Paris, France 1834 - 1917 Paris, France)
Title
Untitled (self-portrait in library)
Classification
Photographs
Work Type
photograph
Date
Probably autumn 1895
Places
Creation Place: Europe, France
Culture
French
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/173196

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Gelatin silver print
Technique
Gelatin silver print
Dimensions
image: 11.9 x 16.7 cm (4 11/16 x 6 9/16 in.)

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
Massachusetts Audubon Society, Lincoln, Massachusetts, gift from Agnes Mongan, 1997, sold to Harvard University Art Museums, 1997.
Agnes Mongan, Cambridge, MA, from Paul Sachs?, gift to Massachusetts Audubon Society, Lincoln, , 1997.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Richard and Ronay Menschel Fund for the Acquisition of Photographs
Accession Year
1997
Object Number
P1997.42
Division
European and American Art
Contact
am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu
Permissions

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Publication History

  • "Paul Andre Lemoisne", Harvard Magazine (Cambridge, MA, 1977)
  • Antoine Terrasse, Degas et la photographie, Editions Denoël (Paris, France, 1983), 82
  • Eugenia Parry Janis, "Edgar Degas' Photographic Theater", Degas: Form and Space, ed. Maurice Guillaud, Centre Culturel de Marais (Paris, France, 1984), fig. 340
  • Jean Sutherland Boggs, Degas, exh. cat., Metropolitan Museum of Art / National Gallery of Canada (New York, NY and Ottawa, Canada, 1988), frontispiece
  • Jon Garelick, "Abstract Thoughts: The Transitional and Transcendent Art of Edgar Degas at the Sackler Museum", The Boston Phoenix (August 5 2005), p. 18, p. 18, repr.
  • "Degas at Harvard", Journal of the Print World (summer 2005), vol. 28, no. 3, p. 26, repr. p. 26
  • Holland Cotter, "Degas, Director: An Easel Becomes a Stage", The New York Times (August 5 2005), pp. B25, B27, repr. p. B27
  • Cate McQuaid, "Degas, Intimately", The Boston Globe (August 12, 2005), Weekend section, repr.
  • Jill DeVonyar and Richard Kendall, Degas and the Art of Japan, exh. cat., Reading Museum / Yale University Press (Reading, PA, 2007), p. 4, fig. 1

Exhibition History

Subjects and Contexts

  • Collection Highlights
  • Google Art Project

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of European and American Art at am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu