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Edgar Degas

Woman Seated in an Armchair, Wiping Her Neck, original plastiline 1890s/c.1905, cast 1920/1952

West Building, Ground Floor — Gallery G4

Medium

copper alloy

Dimensions

overall with base: 31.6 x 27 x 30.1 cm (12 7/16 x 10 5/8 x 11 7/8 in.)

Credit Line

Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon

Accession Number

1985.64.66

Artists / Makers

Edgar Degas (sculptor) French, 1834 - 1917

Image Use

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Inscription

on lower proper left front corner of chair: Degas [stamped replica of artist's signature]; stamped on lower proper right back corner of chair: CIRE PERDUE AAHEBRARD / 44/C

Marks and Labels

FM: CIRE PERDUE AAHEBRARD

Provenance

(A.A. Hébrard, Paris); reportedly (Galerie Kaganovitch, Paris), before 1952.[1] R. Gaston Dreyfus;[2] (sale, Sotheby's, London, 30 March 1966, no. 52); purchased by (P. & D. Colnaghi, London) for Paul Mellon [1907-1999], Upperville, Virginia;[3] gift 1985 to NGA.

[1] Joseph S. Czestochowski and Anne Pingeot, Degas Sculptures. Catalogue Raisonné of the Bronzes, Memphis, 2002: 207, identify this sculpture as the cast in an exhibition organized by Max Kaganovitch in 1952 at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam; they cite an incorrect catalogue number, which should be 143 (R. LXX) rather than 144 (R. LXXII).

[2] The consignor's name was kindly provided by Eva Avloniti of the Sotheby's office in London; see her e-mail of 9 April 2003 to Anne Halpern, in NGA curatorial files.

[3] Mellon collection records, in NGA curatorial files.

Associated Names

Dreyfus, R. Gaston
Mellon, Paul
Sotheby's, London

Exhibition History

1952: Possibly Edgar Degas, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, 1952, no. 143, as Vrouw in stoel.

1955: Possibly The Sculpture of Edgar Degas, Galerie Chalette, New York, 1955, no. 24.

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

2010: Edgar Degas: Figures in Motion, Art Gallery of Alberta, Edmonton, 2010 (used as the catalogue: Joseph S. Czestochowski and Anne Pingeot, Degas - Sculptures, Memphis, 2002).

Bibliography

1991: Pingeot, Anne. Degas Sculptures. Paris, 1991: no. 58.

1994: Sculpture: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1994: 71, repro.

1995: Barbour, Daphne, and Shelley Sturman. "Degas' Women in Washington: Four Case Studies." In From Marble to Chocolate: The Conservation of Modern Sculpture, edited by Jackie Heuman, 31-38. London, 1995: 33, fig. 1.

1995: Campbell, Sara. "A Catalogue of Degas' Bronzes." Apollo 142 (August 1995): 32, no. 44 (with erroneous provenance).

2002: Czestochowski, Joseph S., and Anne Pingeot. Degas--Sculptures. Catalogue Raisonné of the Bronzes. Memphis, 2002: 207.

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. 52, 300-301, color repro.