Provenance

Théodore Duret

French, 1838 - 1927

Explore Selected Works

Auguste Renoir, The Young Soldier, c. 1880, oil on canvas, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, 2014.18.46

The Young Soldier

Auguste Renoir · c. 1880 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  2014.18.46

A small, shaggy, black and white dog stands in a wood paneled room with its body angled to our right but turning its head, pink tongue out, to our left in this vertical painting. The animal is painted with loose brushstrokes that evoke the dog’s long, feathery fur. The dog peers to our left with golden brown eyes. It is black along its flanks and ears, with a stripe of white down the center of the head, and on the muzzle. The chest, belly, and legs are also white, and the bushy tail, which curls up and out like a fountain, is a mixture of black and white. Leaning on the paneling behind the dog to our right is a light wood walking stick. An object, presumably a stuffed toy in the shape of a person wearing a long black robe lined in crimson, lies on the brownish sage-green floor in front of the dog. The dog’s name, “TAMA,” appears in tan block letters at the upper left. The artist signed the work in the lower right corner, "Manet."
Edouard Manet, Tama, the Japanese Dog, c. 1875, oil on canvas, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, 1995.47.12

Tama, the Japanese Dog

Edouard Manet · c. 1875 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1995.47.12

We look slightly down onto a loosely painted scene with three ballerinas in rose-pink costumes and one man, wearing a black suit and top hat, against a backdrop made up of dabs and strokes of lime, mint, and pine green in this vertical painting. The people all appear to have light skin. The most defined person is the woman closest to us, shown from the knees up to the right of center. Her body is angled to our left, and her profile faces that direction. Dark eyelashes suggest her eyes are closed. She has a pointed nose, and her red lips are closed. Dark brown hair is pulled up into a large bun with a coral-pink flower tucked in at the back of her head. She grips opposite elbows at her waist, her arms close to her body. Her pink costume has a low-cut bodice with loops low over her shoulders and a flaring, knee-length tutu. She wears a black choker tied with a bow at the back of her neck and two black bands encircle her wrists. A touch of white at the ear we can see suggests a gold earring. To our right and cut off by the right edge of the painting, a man stands beyond the woman’s shoulder, in shadow as he looks onto the scene. His face is painted with taupe-gray strokes. His suit and top hat are black except for a narrow white collar at his neck. Beyond this pair and seen from the chest up between them, another woman in the same pink costume faces our right. A short distance from us to our left, a third ballerina stands facing away from us. The elephant-gray floor she stands on visually creates a vertical band up the left side of the composition. The rest of the space behind and around the man and dancers is painted loosely with shades of vibrant to muted greens, with a few dabs of pale pink. The painting has a narrow sand-brown border. The artist signed the work by incising into the green paint in the upper right corner, “Degas.”
Edgar Degas, Dancers Backstage, 1876/1883, oil on canvas, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Collection, 1970.17.25

Dancers Backstage

Edgar Degas · 1876/1883 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1970.17.25

We look slightly down and across a stage, as if from the wings, at a ballet performance with ballerinas to our left and the audience to our right in this vertical print. The artist has added strokes in pastel in some areas, as for the dancers’ pink tights and pointed toe shoes. The whole scene is loosely rendered, either with pastel or in the monotype print on which the artist drew. There are at least three ballerinas lined up in a row moving away from us, along the left edge of the paper. Their dark hair is pulled up and, for the woman farthest from us, two pink flowers adorn her hair. They wear costumes with silvery-white bodices and flaring, knee-length tutus. An area streaked with pine green and brown in the upper left corner could be a curtain behind the dancers, and people wearing black watch from red box seats across the stage from us. The surface of the stage itself is a blend of charcoal gray and rose pink, and the edge is lined with white to our right. The audience is a made up of a few peach dots within strokes and smudges of black. More gold and brick-red box seats fill the wall opposite us. There is a black silhouette along the right edge of the paper, with a bulge near the bottom right corner perhaps indicating the shoulder of an onlooker from the wings, next to us. The artist signed the work with vibrant blue near the lower right corner, “degas.”
Edgar Degas, Dancers at the Old Opera House, c. 1877, pastel over monotype on laid paper, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Collection, 1970.17.26

Dancers at the Old Opera House

Edgar Degas · c. 1877 · pastel over monotype on laid paper ·  Accession ID  1970.17.26

Bibliography

1995

  • Cezanne. Exh. cat. Galeries nationales du Grand Palais, Paris, 1995:571