A collection of 28 etchings and aquatints, drypoints

Edgar Degas

1834 – Paris – 1917

Printed from the cancelled plates on japan paper and on heavily textured cream wove paper. Sheet size: 32.8 x 25.1cm.

Literature: Not in Johnson (1944). Johnson (1977), cat. no. 28 (21 etchings). Welsh Reed/ Shapiro, cat. no. 1; 3; 5; 6 ; 8; 11; 17; 18; 19; 22; 24; 33; 34; 39; 40; 41; 42; 44; 46; 47; 48; 49; 50; 51; 52; 53; 55. and a portrait of Degas.

Delteil was the first to refer to the existence of a group of Degas’s cancelled etching plates in his catalogue raisonné of 1919. Just before the catalogue’s publication he had learned that an edition of 150 impressions had been printed and would appear in a deluxe version of a book on Degas being prepared by Ambroise Vollard. Apparently »he ... had acquired the plates, possibly around 1910, with the intention of using them to illustrate a biography of the artist. Given Degas’s known concern for the exhibition and disposition of his prints, it is likely that he saw to their cancellation before turning the plates over to Vollard.« No copper plates were listed in the inventory list of Degas’s studio and »one may assume that Vollard indeed obtained them before Degas’s death.« Johnson mentions in her catalogue entry that Vollard acquired 21 plates which he printed in 1919–20 on japan paper, like the present set, in a uniform size (32.8 x 25.1 cm). This set was released in an unspecifed edition without a cover or title page. The number is based on a set of 21 plates in the Vollard archive in Winterthur.

»Most commonly seen in collections and generally accepted as part of the Vollard printing are the impressions on heavily textured cream wove paper of the same measurements as those in Winterthur. When the dimensions of the etching exceeded the sheet size, the image was cropped or printed without any margins. Significantly, a group of 25 cancelled impressions, acquired in 1949 by the Kunstmuseum Basel, included impressions printed on both Japanese vellum and heavy wove paper. The Basel set is probably one of the most representative examples of the impressions printed for Vollard from the cancelled plates; the use of two papers of the same size indicates the possibility of a deluxe edition for the illustrated book. »One impression of At the Café des Ambassadeurs (cat. no. 49), on wove paper, bears a black Degas signature stamp in the lower margin; this impression was acquired by the present owner directly from Vollard. Other prints with this distinctive stamp have been examined. The Vollard impressions from the cancelled plates are generally considered to be the best printed«. According to Shapiro’s research, our set would appear to be the most comprehensive set of Degas’s cancelled plate in existence. It outnumbers the Winterthur set of 21 and the Basel set of 25 and may be the full account of plates owned by Vollard. It is possible that this example is the most complete set in existence, and therefore most likely unique.

Bought by a museum, Northern America.