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Degas's extraordinary artistic career is examined at the National
Gallery in London. It is a scholarly exploration of method and material;
and pays tribute to his brilliant draughtsmanship in drawing and pastel,
revealing his skill as a technician who experimented greatly. He also
became one of the most discriminating collectors of his day. In his
art Degas created quintessential images of modern life in Paris which
recall Henry James's notion in The Ambassadors, 'all about
imagining that you couldn't possibly be anywhere else'.2 Degas did
not paint images of bustling boulevards and fête galante,
rather he chose mostly interiors (the racecourse works are the exception)
using artificial light and theatrical, architectonic spaces. Decorative
line, stark division of space separated him from his Impressionist
contemporaries.
In the ballet world he created perhaps the most captivating images
of women, producing hundreds of works of dancers and a single small
sculpture: 'Little Dancer aged Fourteen', (1881) was cast in bronze
after Degas's death. Degas produced some 150 sculptures but he did
not show them. Pastel was important, indeed pivotal for Degas for
whom experimentation, re-working, intense pure pigment were vital.
He took up photography too, achieving masterful images with light
and shade. Degas was personally enigmatic and technically complex.
At the National Gallery in London, the concept of exhibitions that
explored the thought processes and skills of the artist began in
1988. The series of 'Art in the Making' ran until 1991, the year
of the groundbreaking exhibition 'Art in the Making: Impressionism',
which delved into the working and materials of the French Impressionists.
Given the Gallery's holdings of works by Edgar Degas, one would
have expected to find numerous examples of his work there. It was,
however, the sheer variety and complexity in Degas's oeuvre,
and the wide range of methods and materials employed that led curators
at the National Gallery to consider Degas a special case. Instead
of using their collection of his work in their important 1991 exhibition,
a decision was made to do significantly more research and to assemble,
from museums and galleries around the world, a truly comprehensive
exhibition of Degas's work.
The new series of 'Art in the Making' exhibitions began last year
(2002-03) with 'Underdrawings in Renaissance Paintings'. This winter
(10 November 2004-30 January 2005), 'Degas' is the culmination of
years of work by a team of conservators, curators and scientists.
Focus is on the Gallery's own paintings with a small number of key
works from other museums. Although this is a small exhibition, it
has been researched and curated to a standard of excellence with
a fine accompanying catalogue. The juxtaposition of sketches, working
drawings, X-rays of the paintings, pastel works, infrared photographs,
presents the working methods in a detailed and accessible form.
The history of the acquisition of works by Degas, and those owned
by him, forms an interesting sub-text to this exhibition and illustrates
English attitudes to European Modernism. The events that enabled
the National Gallery to buy works by Degas were preceded by the
acquisition of a part of Degas's private collection which, at the
time of his death, included several Old Masters and mostly 19th
century French works. He had, for example, 20 paintings and 88 drawings
by his teacher Ingres and 13 paintings and 129 drawings by Delacroix.
Of his contemporaries he owned works by Corot, Manet, Van Gogh,
Cezanne and Gauguin. In addition he owned many other drawings and
graphic works by significant artists. Although the elderly Degas
initially attempted to record and document his collection in the
1890s with the view to establishing a small museum, by the last
five years of his life he was living in Montmartre as a virtual
recluse. The works were piled against walls or stored, with only
a part of his collection actually hung. After his death the collection
could not be preserved and was subsequently sold in two parts in
March (his collection) and May 1918 (his own work).
Roger Fry, the champion of modern French art in England who put
his reputation on the line as scholar and connoisseur when he organised
two exhibitions of Post-Impressionism in London (1910 and 1912),3,4
received possibly the only copy of the sales catalogues from Paris.
Without his intervention the British public would not have benefited
at this poignant moment in art history. Roger Fry's Bloomsbury friend,
John Maynard Keynes had a temporary job at the Treasury during the
war and was instrumental in the National Gallery's key acquisitions
from the Degas collection. Keynes approached Sir Charles Holmes,
asking him to liase with Lord Curzon, a Trustee of the National
Gallery and member of the Cabinet. The result of this fortuitous
connection and foresight was the equivalent of £20,000 transferred
in francs to the British Embassy account in Paris, the acquisition
grant at the National Gallery having been withdrawn at the beginning
of the war. The conscious collecting of 19th century painting by
the National Gallery really began with purchases from the private
collection of Degas in March 1918, from which it bought 13 paintings,
including work by Ingres, Delacroix, Corot, Gauguin, and Manet.
It was realised that Degas's work too should be collected but the
process turned out to be a slow one, characterised by a key missed
opportunity.
Since around the turn of the century, the National Gallery had
been singled out for criticism for its lack of interest in modern
European painting. In fact, its constitution meant that it could
not buy or accept works by living artists and according to the
critic Frank Rutter, the National Gallery Trustees had refused
the offer of a painting by Degas in 1905. But on the other hand,
it had not even attempted to acquire works even by dead artists
such as Manet, as these were felt to be too advanced in style
and not appropriate for a collection which was perceived to be
of established Old Masters. The National Gallery's sister institution,
the Tate, had been established in 1897 as a collection of contemporary
British art, and during the 1900s housed all the Gallery's 19th-century
paintings ... Although no attempt was made to add to them, there
was a growing awareness that Britain lacked a clear policy regarding
the acquisition of modern foreign art.5
Roger Fry's exhibitions of Post-Impressionism of 1910 and 1912
created a furore, and revealed the vehemence felt by the English
public towards 'modern' art and yet Degas was one of the first French
artists to find favour in England; indeed his works sold extremely
well in London to a varied clientele. By 1918 a number of works
by Degas had entered public collections (Victoria and Albert Museum,
Dublin, Tate). In 1893, DS MacColl described Degas as 'the greatest
living virtuoso of drawing' (The Spectator).'6
It was perhaps Degas's supreme ability as a draughtsman which brought
him into such favour in this country. At the sale of his collection
the predominance of pictures by other noted draughtsmen gave authority
to his own skill and awakened in the authorities the realisation
that this artist was vital to the national collections.7
The buyers on behalf of the National Gallery, underestimated the
high prices that the second Degas sale in May 1918 would reach.
The gallery put a limit of £600 for any one picture. Because the
work in Degas's studio was not representative of his entire oeuvre,
and some were unfinished, only five picture were considered to be
of paramount importance. Further, the Treasury did not wish to spend
its limited funds on a pastel, given its fragility; Roger Fry, however,
believed that this policy was tantamount to a great missed opportunity.
So, although the National Gallery was in agreement in wishing to
acquire works by Degas, they were divided as to which should have
been bid for, and they underestimated the interest in the sale.
Not a single picture was bought with the Treasury Grant. The National
Art Collections Fund was only able to buy one which was presented
to the Tate. Private collectors bought a third and presented it
to the Tate in 1919. Had the Treasury grant been free of limitations,
it might have acquired significant works. The next Degas to be acquired
by the National Gallery was not until 1937 ('La Coiffure', 1896)
which Lord Curzon had crossed off the shortlist in 1918, for being,
in his view, 'too coarse'.8 Roger Fry was privately distressed at
the failure of the British buyers to acquire such 'magnificent'
examples of Degas's work; his choices had largely been ignored (letter
to Vanessa Bell, 6 March 1924).
A breakthrough for British collections came with the vision of
industrialist Samuel Courtauld, who in the 1920s gave £50,000 specifically
for the purchase of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist paintings
for English national collections. Degas's, 'Young Spartans Exercising'
among other works was bought in 1924.
Courtauld's generosity meant that artists such as Degas, Manet,
Renoir, Cezanne, Monet, Van Gogh and Gauguin were now well represented
in the national collection, some for the first time. Courtauld himself
specified the list of artists whose work could be bought, and he
gave Impressionist landscape a central place in the modern movement,
unlike many English critics such as Roger Fry (and indeed Degas
himself). Frank Rutter had even gone so far as to say that Impressionism,
with its sketch-like qualities and concern with surface appearances,
had never been popular in England. But for many others, Degas's
rigorous draughtsmanship and sense of design held him apart from
Impressionism. In his case the Courtauld purchases can really be
said to have put the official stamp of approval on his art.9
The Degas collection at the National Gallery was increased when
the National Gallery and Tate Gallery Act of 1955 enabled paintings
to be regularly transferred between the two museums. Most pictures
bought with the Courtauld Fund ended up in the National Gallery.
Degas works included in the rationalisation were: 'Princess Pauline
de Metternich', (c.1865), 'Beach Scene', (1869-70), 'Young Spartans
Exercising' (1860), 'Miss La La at the Cirque Fernando', (1879),
'Portrait of Elena Carafa', (c.1875) and 'Ballet Dancers', (1890-1900).
Purchases and generous gifts have increased the collection steadily
over the past forty years, the most recent being the pastel, Russian
Dancers, (1899) in 1999. In addition to the astute analysis
from artistic and scientific perspectives, the exhibition marks
85 years since the pivotal Degas sale of 1918, and reveals the complex
process involved in establishing a national collection.
Dr Janet McKenzie
References
1. Riopelle C. Edgar Degas: Illustrious and Unknown. In: Bomford
D, Herring S, Kirby J, Riopelle C, Roy A. Art in the Making:
Degas. London: National Gallery Company, 2004: 10-11.
2. Ibid: 14.
3. Spalding F. Roger Fry: Art and Life. London: Weidenfeld
and Nicholson, 1983.
4. Shone R. Bloomsbury Portraits. Oxford: Phaidon, 1976.
5. Herring S. Degas and the National Gallery, op cit: 46.
6. Ibid: 47.
7. Ibid: 47.
8. Charleston Papers, King's College, Cambridge.
9. Herring S, op cit: 55.
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