Head of a Woman (Mlle Salle)
Edgar Degas
(French, 1834–1917)
modeled in 1892, cast in bronze after 1919
Country of Origin, for CustomsFrance
Object PlaceFrance
Medium/TechniqueMetal; bronze
DimensionsOverall (without base): 25.5 x 15.3 x 19.2 cm (10 1/16 x 6 x 7 9/16 in.)
Credit LineBequest of Margarett Sargent McKean
Accession number1979.509
On View
Not on viewClassificationsSculpture
Collections
This portrait represents Mathilde Salle, a well-known performer in the Paris Opera ballet, who posed for Degas in 1892. Degas produced many small sculptures in wax for his own use, including dancers, bathers and horses as well as some portrait heads like this one. After his death, the best preserved of these waxes were repaired and cast in bronze; from the bronzes a limited number of casts were made. Degas himself was reluctant to cast his works in bronze, a medium he described as “for eternity.”
ProvenanceAfter 1919, cast by A. A. Hébrard and consigned to Walther Halvorsen (b. 1887 - d. 1972), Paris and London [see note 1]. 1922, Durand-Ruel, New York. 1925, Ferargil Galleries, New York. By 1962, Margarett Sargent McKean (b. 1892 - d. 1978), Boston; 1979, bequest of Margarett Sargent McKean to the MFA. (Accession Date: October 17, 1979)
NOTES:
[1] Information about the provenance (before 1962) is taken from Sara Campbell, "A catalogue of Degas' bronzes," Apollo 142, no. 402 (August, 1995): 24, no. 27B.
NOTES:
[1] Information about the provenance (before 1962) is taken from Sara Campbell, "A catalogue of Degas' bronzes," Apollo 142, no. 402 (August, 1995): 24, no. 27B.
Edgar Degas
