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Edgar Degas

The Schoolgirl (Woman Walking in the Street), original wax c. 1880/1881, cast probably 1956/1958

West Building, Ground Floor — Gallery G3

Medium

copper alloy

Dimensions

overall with base: 27.4 x 11.5 x 8.2 cm (10 13/16 x 4 1/2 x 3 1/4 in.)
height (of figure): 26.6 cm (10 1/2 in.)

Credit Line

Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon

Accession Number

1999.79.37

Artists / Makers

Edgar Degas (sculptor) French, 1834 - 1917

Image Use

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Inscription

on base parallel to figure's right foot: Degas [stamped replica of artist's signature]; on corner of base behind figure's left foot: Hébrard Foundry stamp and .S.P.

Marks and Labels

FM: A.A. HEBRARD

Provenance

Hébrard family, Paris, 1956; Michel Kellerman, Paris;[1] sold March 1958 to (Fine Arts Associates [Otto Gerson Gallery], New York); sold 2 July 1958 to Mr. [1906-2001] and Mrs. Larry Aldrich, Ridgefield, Connecticut;[2] (their sale, Parke-Bernet Galleries, New York, 30 October 1963, no. 6, as Femme marchant dans la rue); John A. Beck [1920-1973], Houston;[3] (sale, Parke Bernet, New York, 16 April 1969, no. 8, as L'ecoliere--Jeune femme marchant dans la rue);[4] (Charles K. Lock [Lock Galleries], New York);[5] sold 1969 to Paul Mellon [1907-1999], Upperville, Virginia; bequest 1999 to NGA.

[1] Kellerman was reportedly Nelly Hébrard's caregiver who became one of her heirs (oral communication from Anne Pingeot to Suzanne Glover Lindsay, 2007). His ownership is cited in the 1963 Parke-Bernet sale catalogue, and confirmed by the stock card for the sculpture in the Otto and Ilse Gerson Papers (copy, NGA curatorial files, printed from Otto and Ilse Gerson Papers [1933-1980], business records, microfilm roll 4052, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C). Joseph S. Czestochowski and Anne Pingeot, Degas Sculptures. Catalogue Raisonné of the Bronzes, Memphis, 2002: 268, give 1956 as the year Kellerman acquired the bronze.

[2] Though no identifying marks were published in the catalogue, this cast has been associated in all subsequent literature with the bronze shown in Otto Gerson's 1958 exhibition, which, according to the catalogue cover, took place summer-fall 1958. The Gerson stock card for the sculpture ("stock #S23"; see note 1) does not record any mark or cast number either, but does provide the "bought from" and "sold to" information given here.

[3] Eva Avloniti at Sotheby's kindly provided the name of John A. Beck (e-mail of 8 April 2003 to Anne Halpern, in NGA curatorial files). Beck and his wife, Audrey Jones Beck (1922-2003) formed an important collection of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist art that was ultimately donated to the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.

[4] In the catalogue, the sculpture is listed under the heading "Various Properties."

[5] Mellon collection records and Eva Avloniti's e-mail (see note 3), both in NGA curatorial files.

Associated Names

Mellon, Paul

Exhibition History

1958: Paintings, Watercolors, Sculpture, Fine Arts Associates (Otto Gerson Gallery), New York, 1958, no. 5, repro.

1959: Paintings and Sculpture Collected by Mr. and Mrs. Larry Aldrich, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond; Atlanta Art Association Galleries, 1959, unnumbered section of catalogue.

1974: Nineteenth-Century Sculpture, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1974, unnumbered checklist.

2005: Breaking the Mold: Sculpture in Paris from Daumier to Rodin, The Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick, 2005-2006, unnumbered catalogue, fig. 167.

Bibliography

1991: Pingeot, Anne. Degas Sculptures. Paris, 1991: no. 74.

1995: Campbell, Sara. "A Catalogue of Degas' Bronzes." Apollo 142 (August 1995): 10-48, 48, fig. 72.

2002: Czestochowski, Joseph S., and Anne Pingeot. Degas--Sculptures. Catalogue Raisonné of the Bronzes. Memphis, 2002: 268.

2010: Lindsay, Suzanne Glover, Daphne S. Barbour, and Shelley G. Sturman. Edgar Degas Sculpture. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 2010: no. 58, 328-330, color repro.