Acquisition · René de Gas, drawing by Edgar Degas

1855, when he produced this drawing, was a decisive year for Degas. It was the year he was admitted to the Beaux Arts in Paris and met Ingres. It was also the year in which he painted his first two major works: his self-portrait known as Degas au Porte-Fusain (Degas with Charcoal Holder – see illustration below), and René à l’Encrier (René with an Inkwell – conserved at the Smith College Museum, Northampton, Massachusetts). Creation of portraits of his friends and family is of central importance in Degas’ practice.

This drawing of René belongs to a highly distinct series on pink paper, two other examples of which are already conserved at Musée d’Orsay (see illustrations below). Henri Loyrette analyzed the drawing of René with eyes closed as follows: “The face seems to emerge or appear, like a mask, and the softening of the lead pencil’s lines seems to create an effect aesthetically similar to sfumato… He seems to be moving towards the aesthetics of old drawings, those from the Italian Renaissance in particular” (Henri Loyrette, Paradis d’artistes au XIX^e siècle, exhibition catalogue, p.43). This rather more accomplished drawing has the same fleeting character of an apparition as the other two, created by his pencil’s slightly blurred lines. The white highlights on the pupils of René’s eyes, which are fixed upon us, reinforce the enigmatic intensity of his gaze. It’s very much like a small painted portrait of René (conserved at the National Gallery of Art, Washington) whose dimensions are very close to those of this drawing, which was a preparatory work.

It is signed and dedicated to René, who kept it in his collection until his death, along with the Portrait with an Inkwell. 6 or 7 years later, Degas produced another portrait – engraved this time – of René as a teenager (now conserved by the Fogg Museum, Harvard), but the artist went on to cut ties with his brother for many years. René went to live in the United States to make a life for himself there. He married his cousin Estelle Musson there, but abandoned wife and home in 1878 to follow his mistress, which Degas couldn’t forgive him for.

This new drawing is a further addition to the collection of portraits of Degas’ siblings, including a drawing of his brother Achille (see illustration below), which employs a similar technique. It also complements one of the finest series on colored paper in the Museum’s benchmark collection of Degas’ graphic arts, which remains one of Musée d’Orsay’s showpieces.

Article by Caroline Corbeau-Parsons, Curator of Graphic Arts and Paintings