Description
Edgar DEGAS (Paris, 1834 - 1917) The Dying Slave, after Michelangelo Black pencil. Black pencil test on the right side. Stamp of the sale of the studio on the lower left (L. 658). Stamp of the estate at lower right (L. 657). 26.7 x 20.2 cm Provenance: - IVth and last sale of the studio, Paris, Georges Petit Gallery, July 2-4, 1919, part no. 130, (b) mentioned as a Saint Sebastian. - Count Bombicci-Pontelli, Florence. - Anonymous sale, Pandolfini, Florence, November 18, 2015, p. 86, no. 107. Exhibitions: - French Painting in Florence, Florence, Pitti Palace, Summer 1945, cat. 195. - Degas at the Opera, Paris, Musée d'Orsay, 24 September 2019-19 January 2020, cat. 37. Between 1853 and 1879, Degas made numerous copies while studying the works of the masters in the Louvre, in the prints department of the National Library, but also during his trip to Italy between 1856 and 1861. Thus "everything that is likely to help him solve the problem of movement in the human body attracts him" and to do this he makes quick sketches, as here, with the famous torsion of one of Michelangelo's slaves. This work can be compared with a drawing after one of the Prisoners [sic], which is kept in the Feilchenfelt collection in Zurich (see: J. Lassaigne and F. Minervo, Tout l'œuvre peint de Degas, Paris, Flammarion, 1974, pp. 86-87, reproduced in fig. 9).
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Edgar DEGAS (Paris, 1834 - 1917) The Dying Slave, after Michelangelo Black pencil. Black pencil test on the right side. Stamp of the sale of the studio on the lower left (L. 658). Stamp of the estate at lower right (L. 657). 26.7 x 20.2 cm Provenance: - IVth and last sale of the studio, Paris, Georges Petit Gallery, July 2-4, 1919, part no. 130, (b) mentioned as a Saint Sebastian. - Count Bombicci-Pontelli, Florence. - Anonymous sale, Pandolfini, Florence, November 18, 2015, p. 86, no. 107. Exhibitions: - French Painting in Florence, Florence, Pitti Palace, Summer 1945, cat. 195. - Degas at the Opera, Paris, Musée d'Orsay, 24 September 2019-19 January 2020, cat. 37. Between 1853 and 1879, Degas made numerous copies while studying the works of the masters in the Louvre, in the prints department of the National Library, but also during his trip to Italy between 1856 and 1861. Thus "everything that is likely to help him solve the problem of movement in the human body attracts him" and to do this he makes quick sketches, as here, with the famous torsion of one of Michelangelo's slaves. This work can be compared with a drawing after one of the Prisoners [sic], which is kept in the Feilchenfelt collection in Zurich (see: J. Lassaigne and F. Minervo, Tout l'œuvre peint de Degas, Paris, Flammarion, 1974, pp. 86-87, reproduced in fig. 9).
