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Marguerite De Gas, the Artist's Sister
Marguerite De Gas, the Artist's Sister

Marguerite De Gas, the Artist's Sister

Edgar Degas (French, 1834–1917)
1860–62
Medium/TechniqueEtching and drypoint
DimensionsPlatemark: 11.6 x 8.8 cm (4 9/16 x 3 7/16 in.); Sheet (irregular): 12.5 x 11.0 cm (4 15/16 x 4 5/16 in.)
Credit LineKatherine E. Bullard Fund in memory of Francis Bullard
Accession number1973.2
On View
Not on view
ClassificationsPrints
ProvenanceDavid David-Weill (b. 1871 - d. 1952), Paris and Neuilly-sur-Seine, France [see note 1]; between 1940 and 1944, confiscated from David David-Weill by the Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg (ERR no. DW 1582) [see note 2]; after World War II, returned to David David-Weill or to his heirs and passed by descent within the family [see note 3]; May 25-26, 1971, David-Weill sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, lot 44, to C. G. Boerner (dealer), Düsseldorf; 1973, sold by Boerner to the MFA. (Accession Date: January 10, 1973)

NOTES:
[1] David David-Weill was a Jewish banker and art collector. Before World War II, he sent a portion of his art collection to the United States. Other portions he stored at different locations in France, keeping parts of the collection at his home in Neuilly. See Hector Feliciano, The Lost Museum: The Nazi Conspiracy to Steal the World's Greatest Works of Art (New York, 1997), pp. 86-94.

[2] The ERR was the National Socialist agency responsible for confiscating art and cultural goods. Between 1940 and 1944, the ERR seized those portions of David-Weill's art collection that remained in France. This etching is very probably ERR no. DW 1582 (undated card; described as Portrait of the Artist's Sister by Degas, original etching, 3d state, Delteil 17). National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, MD, Microfilm Publication M1943, ERR Card File and Related Photographs, No. DW 1582.

[3] On the return of the David-Weill collection, see Feliciano 1997 (as above, n. 1), pp. 180-181. In 1971, after the death of David-Weill's widow, over 500 objects from his collection were sold.