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Estimate: $ 15,000 - $ 20,000
EDGAR DEGAS Homme nu debout.
Pencil and wash on cream laid paper, double-sided, circa 1855. 460x280 mm; 18 1/4x11 inches. With the artist's atelier red ink stamp (Lugt 657, lower right recto).
While Degas (1834-1917) is often associated with Impressionism, his now famous renditions of Parisian demimonde characters, ballet dancers and bathers were heavily influenced by his early technical training, which focused on sketching from Italian Renaissance masters and classical sculptures. Born to a wealthy banking family, Degas was educated in one of the most rigorous and prestigious schools in Paris, the Lycée Louis-le-Grand, where he studied the classics. His father recognized Degas' ability to draw at an early age and prompted him toward an artistic profession, taking him to the great museums of Paris to copy the antique sculpture and Renaissance masters. In the late 1850s, Degas made several sojourns to Italy to sketch. He became deeply engrossed in rendering the static human forms of classical sculpture abd early Renaissance frescos and, though he later dropped this academic style, the initial training copying old masters is apparent in his approach to the figure.
This well- rendered, double-sided work was drawn from the sculpture known as the Borghese Gladiator, now in the Louvre, Paris. The statue is a Hellenistic, life-size marble created at Epheseus around 100 BC. It was unearthed south of Rome, among the ruins of Neross seaside palace, and entered the Borghese collection in Rome where it resided until Camillo Borghese was pressured to sell it to his brother-in-law, Napoleon Bonaparte, in 1807.
In this study, Degas paid careful attention to the contours of the male nude figure, leaving his head and extremeties subtly addressed by comparison. The other side of the sheet represents a drawing of the same figure, more economically drawn, and similarly focuses on the curved outlines of the torso. As Degas' artistic practice progressed, his use of strong contours to outline the body, all the while leaving faces more obscure, became a hallmark of his style. Degas continued to be influenced by various artistic traditions throughout his career, ranging from 16th-century Italian Mannerism to traditional Japanese Ukiyo-e woodcuts.
