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Hilaire-Germain-Edgar Degas
French, 1834–1917
Portrait of a Man
c. 1877
Degas experimented with radical compositions in a number of portraits during the 1860s and 1870s. The figure in this painting is shown seated at a desk with his body turned away from us, absorbed in his own thoughts. The painting was neither signed nor exhibited during the artist’s lifetime, perhaps because he considered it unfinished. Though the sitter has never been identified, he was probably a friend or acquaintance as Degas rarely accepted commissions.
Image Caption
Hilaire-Germain-Edgar Degas, Portrait of a Man, c. 1877, oil on canvas. Clark Art Institute, 1955.44
Medium
oil on canvas
Dimensions
31 1/8 x 23 1/4 in. (79 x 59 cm)
Frame: 38 1/2 x 31 1/4 in. (97.8 x 79.4 cm)
Object Number
1955.44
Acquisition
Acquired by Sterling and Francine Clark before 1955
Status
On View
Select Bibliography
Lemoisne, Paul-André. Degas et son oeuvre. Les Artistes et leurs oeuvres, études et documents. Paris: P. Brame et C. M. de Hauke, 1946. Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Exhibit Four: First Two Rooms. Exhibition catalogue. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1955. "Nineteenth-Century Art in the Berkshires." Think. New York: IBM Corp. Oct. 1955. Frankfurter, Alfred. "Dark Horse in Williamstown." Art News 54, no. 4 (Summer 1955): 28–31. Comstock, Helen. "The Connoisseur in America—The Clark Collection Opens." The Connoisseur (American ed.). 136. (January 1956). Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Exhibit Four & Exhibit Seven. Exhibition catalogue. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1958. Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Exhibit Ten: Degas. Exhibition catalogue. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1959. . "The Clark, Williamstown". vol. 4, no. 27, June 27, 1960. Playbill. Wildenstein & Company. An Exhibition of Treasures from the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts: Paintings, drawings & rare silver, for the benefit of the Committee to Rescue Italian Art, inc. (CRIA). Exhibition catalogue. New York: Wildenstein & Company, 1967. Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Edgar Degas (1834-1917). Exhibition catalogue. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1970. Minervino, Fiorella, and Franco Russoli. L'Opera completa di Degas. Milan: Rizzoli, 1970. Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. List of Paintings in the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1970. Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. List of Paintings in the Sterling & Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1972. Faison, S. Lane, Jr. The Art Museums of New England: Massachusetts. Vol. 2. Revised edition of Faison, Guide to the Art Museums of New England, 1958. Godine Guide 3. Boston: David R. Godine, 1982. Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. List of Paintings in the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1984. Fernandez, Rafael, and Alexandra R. Murphy. Degas in the Clark Collection. Exhibition catalogue. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1987. Kern, Steven, ed. List of Paintings in the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1992. Ganz, James A. and Richard R. Brettell. Great French Paintings from the Clark: Barbizon through Impressionism. Exhibition catalogue. New York: Skira Rizzoli Publications; Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 2011. Lees, Sarah, ed. Nineteenth-Century European Paintings at the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute; New Haven and London: distributed by Yale University Press, 2012.
Provenance
The artist (d. 1917, fourth studio sale, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, 2-4 July 1919, no. 8, ill., sold to Knoedler, as agent for Clark); Robert Sterling Clark (1919–55); Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1955.