Edgar Degas (1834-1917) - Lot 22

Edgar Degas (1834-1917) Portrait, head resting on one hand, before 1885 Bronze proof Lost-wax casting by A.A. Hébrard, between 1921 and 1932 Inscriptions on right shoulder: Degas (stamp) Inscriptions on left shoulder: "62/K - CIRE / PERDUE / A.A. HEBRARD". Label inside, almost illegible: "DOUANES / PARIS / EXPOSITIONS". 12.3 x 17.5 x 16.2 cm Provenance: Glasgow, Cargill collection France, private collection (inherited) While portraiture is a genre that occupies Degas intensely in painting, making him one of the greatest portraitists in the history of modern art, sculpted portraits are rare. Two other sculpted portraits are known to date, thanks to the edition. For Portrait, tête appuyée sur une main, the subject is not so much the model, whose studies suggest several hypotheses, but the movement. This sculpture bears witness to the artist's personal quest to capture an attitude, as in the case of dancers' bodies, women in motion or horses. A softness emanates from this sculpture, as much from the intimate subject as from the oblique composition and fluid modeling, alternating between precision on the face and blurred details on the hair and bodice. Like Degas' other models, the bronze edition of the model includes 22 copies (A to T and HER and HERD), plus the MODELE at the Norton Simon in Pasadena and the unlocated copy marked AP by Albino Palazzolo. 14 examples are currently unlocated (in private collections). Six are in museums: ◆ Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA (A) ◆ Hannema - De Stuers Fundation, Heino, Netherlands (F) ◆ Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, United States (H) ◆ Musée d'Orsay, Paris, France (P) ◆ Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen, Sweden (R) ◆ Museu de Arte, Sao Paulo, Brazil (S) This copy, numbered "K", comes from the Cargill collection in Glasgow, Scotland. Director of the Burmah oil company, founded by his father Davis S. Cargill, William Trail Cargill (1872-1939) built up one of the finest collections of French Impressionist and modern art in Scotland. He bought mainly from the Glasgow-based dealer Alexander Reid. Between 1918 and 1927, he acquired works by Daumier, Boudin, Manet, Monet and Degas, among others. In 1923 in London and 1924 in Glasgow, Reid joined forces with the Leicester Galleries to present an exhibition of Degas' bronze sculptures, including 37 dancers, 17 horses, 14 studies of women, 3 bust portraits and 1 bas-relief. Portrait, tête appuyée sur une main is listed at no. 71 in the catalog. It was probably acquired on this occasion by D. W. T. Cargill from the dealer Alexander Reid. An old customs label is still present inside the sculpture. The sculpture later returned to France by inheritance. Related literature: - Exhibition of the Works in Sculpture of Edgar Degas, February-March 1923, London, The Leicester Galleries, preface by Walter Sickert, no. 71. - Rewald, John, Degas, works in sculpture, a complete catalog, Pantheon Books Inc, New York, 1944, p.82, pl XXIX, repr. - Pingeot, Anne and Horvat, Frank, Degas, sculptures, RMN, 1991, p.187, n°71 and p.145, repr. (Proof 62/P) - Fowle, Frances, Alexander Reid in context: Collecting and dealing in Scotland in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries, thesis, 1993, University of Edinburgh. - Czestochowski, Joseph S., Pingeot, Anne, Degas, Sculptures, Catalogue Raisonné of the Bronzes, National Museum of San Carlos, Mexico City, June 10-September 15, 2002, Memorial Art Gallery, University of Rochester, New York, October 10, 2002-January 12, 2003, San Diego Museum of Art, June 28-September 28, 2003, Fin Arts Museums of San Francisco, Legion of Honor, October 18, 2003-January 18, 2004, p.242-243, no. 62, repr. - En Passant, Impressionism in sculpture, edited by Alexander Eiling and Eva Mongi-Vollmer, Frankfurt am Main, Städel Museum, March 19 - June 28 2020, Prestel, p.155, repr. Cat.69, (proof Museum de Fundatie de Zwolle and Heino/Wijhe 62/F).