Manet - En Buste. Portrait of Edouard Manet - Bust Length. by Edgar Degas, 1834-1917

Edgar Degas, 1834-1917
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Manet - En Buste. Portrait of Edouard Manet - Bust Length.

Original etching with drypoint in black ink. 1864/65. Impression from the plate with the cancellation lines, from the edition of c.15 impressions printed for Frank Perls, 1959. With his blindstamp lower right. (The plate is now in a private collection and no further impressions will be printed). Only some six/seven impressions are known from Degas' lifetime and prior to cancellation.
Ref: Delteil - Degas Peintre Graveur 14. Reed-Shapiro - Degas -Painter as printmaker 19 - fifth state as cancelled.

Very fine strong impression of this issue. On antique 19th century laid paper. Excellent condition. Full margins. Sheet: 10 3/4 x 7 7/8ins. Plate: 5 1/8 x 4 1/8ins. (129x105mm)

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The series of three portraits of Manet (of which two are shown here in later impressions) are probably the most famous etchings of Degas's first period. Degas was profoundly influenced by Manet's paintings of the early 1860's, by their realism and modernity and by the way that they confront the viewer. It was this sense of modernity and realism that Degas sought to express in his etched portraits, the medium itself adding to the directness of the imagery.

The portraits were all worked up on the etching plates from drawings done either in Manet's or Degas's studios. There was probably a small time lapse between the two portraits above as the complexity of Degas's treatment of the plate has definitely developed between the two.

So few impressions are known from these etchings prior to cancellation that good impressions from the post-cancellation printings still show very much of the complexity and beauty of Degas's handling of the line on the plate.