Beschreibung:

EDGAR DEGAS France 1834-1917 Cavalier et amazone Executed around 1881-85. Signed. Pastel on paper. 31 x 22 cm PROVENANCE: Atelier Degas, Paris Catalogue de la vente Degas, Galerie George Petit, Paris 1919, catalogue no. 46 3 Collection Hessel, Paris Galerie Beyeler, Basel Marlborough Gallery, London LITERATURE: P.A. Lemoisne: Degas et son oeuvre, vol II, Paris 1947, catalogue no. 672 , illustrated page 377 Degas was born into a moderately affluent banking family in 1834, and grew up in comfortable circumstances in Paris. He was schooled in classical subjects such as Latin, Greek and history at an early age. Moreover, his father noted that he was artistically inclined and took him to visit the museums of Paris. As he grew older, he studied at the École des Beaux-Arts, following the traditional academic approach which largely involved copying works by the old masters. Degas was principally inspired by Uccello, Gozzoli, van Dyck and Géricault, and towards the end of the 1850s he made several journeys to Italy, where he was greatly influenced by old paintings and frescoes. The classical heritage had a clear impact on Degas' oeuvre, despite the fact that as from 1865 - when his historical painting The Misfortunes of the City of Orléans was accepted at the Salon in Paris - he chose instead to paint scenes from his own time. He made this choice at around the same time as Manet's famous Le déjeuner sur l'herbe (Luncheon on the Grass) was rejected by the Salon, marking the start of a new direction in art - the Impressionist movement - and a break with traditional schooling at the art academies. The horse is a recurring motif in Degas' art, in parallel with the ballet, which he frequently drew, painted and sculpted. Degas experimented not only with motifs, but also with technique, moving easily between graphic art, photography, painting, drawing and sculpture. His fascination with horses as a motif can be traced back to his student years, when he was keen to copy representations of these animals from paintings by the old masters. His father's collection of English graphics featuring horses served as another source of inspiration. Horse racing became hugely popular during the latter half of the nineteenth century, and quickly attracted a sizeable following among fashionable, bourgeois society. Degas thrived in this environment, where he could study the contemporary phenomenon at first hand and actually play a part in the modern context. In exactly the same way as his motifs of dancers from the world of ballet, it is the shape and movement of the horses' figures that play the key role in his work. Alongside his series of works from the horse racing tracks, Degas also returned to classical art techniques in his horse motifs. In all his works from these seemingly different perspectives, Degas was obsessed with attempting to master the skills of line and light. In this context, his classical heritage serves as a springboard for releasing a modern phenomenon in which brush and chalk are used to explore and pick out new paths and dimensions through art. In contrast to many of his contemporaries, Degas chose not to turn his back on art history; instead, he embraced the classical style and used it to explore his own age. Changes Stämpelsignerad / Stampsigned PROVENIENS/Provenance: Wildenstein & Co, New York UTSTÄLLD/Exhibited: Museo Nacioanl e Bellas Artes, Buseno Aires, 1959