Edgar DEGAS (Paris, 1834 - 1917) - Lot 257

Lot n° 257
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Estimation :
25000 - 30000 EUR
Result with fees
Result : 51 200EUR
Edgar DEGAS (Paris, 1834 - 1917) - Lot 257
Edgar DEGAS (Paris, 1834 - 1917) The Armchair, circa 1858-1860 Watercolor gouache on black pencil lines. Watercolor palette at the bottom. Stamp of the estate in the lower left corner (L. 657). 35.5 x 22.8 cm Provenance: - Former René de Gas collection. - Former collection of Madame Quito. - Anonymous sale, Piasa, Paris, Hôtel Drouot, April 1, 2011, n° 8, reproduced. Exhibition: Degas dans les collections françaises, Paris, Gazette des Beaux-Arts, 1955, no. 44. Bibliography: P.Brame and T. Reff, Degas et son œuvre, A supplement, New York, Garland Publishing, 1984, n° 39, p. 43, reproduced . Our watercolor is a preliminary study for The Bellelli Family, a painting now in the Musée d'Orsay (inv. RF2210). Degas stayed in Italy between 1856 and 1860. In 1858, he visited his paternal aunt Laure Bellelli in Florence. The latter had married Baron Bellelli, an Italian patriot who had been expelled from Naples and taken refuge in Florence. On the left is the portrait of this aunt, Laure Bellelli, sister of the artist's father, with her daughters Giovanna and Giulia, and on the right is Gennaro Bellelli, the artist's uncle by marriage, represented from behind seated in this "patriarchal" armchair, on the right of the composition. A masterpiece of the early years, this complex family portrait occupied Degas until the mid-1860s. His aunt and her husband were no longer getting along, and Degas transcribed this unhealthy atmosphere by placing his aunt and her two daughters facing each other on one side, and the baron seated three-quarters of the way back in an armchair on the other. This piece of furniture thus becomes the wall of incomprehension that can sometimes separate couples. The armchair represented here is not the same as the one in the painting and other known studies, but it has a similar shape and is watercolored in the same position as in the future painting. It is therefore reasonable to assume that this is a preliminary study. Degas made very little use of the watercolor technique after his stay in Italy.
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