Edgar Degas
Self-Portrait
1850-1860
Physical Qualities
Oil paint on paper mounted on canvas, Sheet: 230 x 178 mm. (9 1/16 x 7 in.)
Credit Line
Saidie A. May Bequest Fund
Object Number
1953.205
Throughout his lifetime, Degas, like Rembrandt before him, produced a significant group of self-portraits. The dramatic shading of one side of his face focuses our attention on the artist’s eye. As we see in Odilon Redon’s drawing, The Eye (Vision), the eye is a window to the soul, a reference to the artist’s vision, and functions to symbolize a universal human creativity.
Baltimore Museum of Art by Purchase, M. Knoedler & Co., 1953; The Bomford Collection, London; Dr. Mellar, Budapest
Katy Rothkopf, BMA, "The Renoir Returns," March 30 - July 20, 2014.
BMA, Cone Wing rotation, 19 November 2008 - 2 July 2010.
Ackland Art Museum, Chapel Hill, NC, "French Nineteenth Century Oil Sketches: David to Degas," 5 March - 18 April 1978.
Isaac Delgado Museum of Art, New Orleans, "Degas and New Orleans," May 1965.
BMA, "Manet, Degas, Berthe Morisot and Mary Cassatt," 18 April - 3 June 1962, cat no 32.
Wildenstein and Co., New York, "Degas for the Citizens' Committee for the Children of New York," 6 April - 7 May 1960, no 3.
BMA, "Man and his Years, 19 October - 21 November 1954, cat no 93.
Marlborough Gallery, London, "Exhibit of French Masters," November 1951, no 12.
Dublin, "Irish Exhibition of Living Art," 1948, no. 115.
Arts Council of Great Britain, London, "An Exhibition of Paintings of the French School, Bomford Collection," 1945, pl 15.
BMA, Cone Wing rotation, 19 November 2008 - 2 July 2010.
Ackland Art Museum, Chapel Hill, NC, "French Nineteenth Century Oil Sketches: David to Degas," 5 March - 18 April 1978.
Isaac Delgado Museum of Art, New Orleans, "Degas and New Orleans," May 1965.
BMA, "Manet, Degas, Berthe Morisot and Mary Cassatt," 18 April - 3 June 1962, cat no 32.
Wildenstein and Co., New York, "Degas for the Citizens' Committee for the Children of New York," 6 April - 7 May 1960, no 3.
BMA, "Man and his Years, 19 October - 21 November 1954, cat no 93.
Marlborough Gallery, London, "Exhibit of French Masters," November 1951, no 12.
Dublin, "Irish Exhibition of Living Art," 1948, no. 115.
Arts Council of Great Britain, London, "An Exhibition of Paintings of the French School, Bomford Collection," 1945, pl 15.
"The Saidie A. May Collection," The Baltimore Museum of Art Record 3:1 (1972), p. 54, ill. p. 54.
Baltimore Museum of Art, "Manet, Degas, Berthe Morisot and Mary Cassatt," April 18-June 3, 1962, p. 53, no. 32.
"A Picture Book: 200 Objects in The Baltimore Museum of Art," Baltimore, 1955, ill. p. 51.
Baltimore Museum of Art. The Essence of Line: French Drawings from Ingres to Degas. Baltimore, MD: Baltimore Museum of Art; Baltimore, MD: Walters Art Museum; University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2005, page 186, fig. 1.
"Self-Portrait by Edgar Degas," The Baltimore Museum of Art News, 16:2 (December 1953), p. 7.
P.A. Lemoisne, "Degas et son oeuvre," Paris, Paul Brame and C.M. De Hauke with Arts et Métiers Graphiques, 1946, no. 14.
