EDGAR DEGAS and GEORGE W THORNLEY L'Attente de la Chanteuse.
Color lithograph printed in dark mauve on rose-toned Chine appliqué on greenish gray wove paper, circa 1888. 248x140 mm; 9 3/4x5 1/2 inches, wide margins. Artist's proof, from the deluxe edition of 25, before the edition of 100 with text in the lower margin. Signed by both Degas and Thornley, lower margin, and annotated in pencil, lower margin. With Thornley's blind stamp twice, lower center and lower right. Printed by Atelier Becquet, Paris. Published by Boussod-Valadon, Paris. From Quinze Lithographies. A very good impression.
Degas (1834-1917) was likely influenced to collaborate with the lithographer Thornley by Theo Van Gogh, the influential director of the Boussod-Valadon Gallery in Paris, and as a result of Thornley's masterful lithographic interpretations of drawings by Puvis de Chavannes. By 1888, Degas and Thornley were working together to produce a portfolio of 15 lithographs based on drawings by Degas. The portfolio was issued in 1889 in an edition of 100, plus an additional deluxe edition of 25 with each of the prints signed by both artists. Reed/Shapiro p. lvii.
