Seated, Turned to the Right
Original title: Édouard Manet, Seated, Turned to the Right
kurzbeschreibung
Around 1868, Edgar Degas made this etching with drypoint. It shows the painter Édouard Manet seated and turned to the right. This is the first state of four; the plate measures 19.5 by 13 cm.
Description
A bearded man sits on a simple wooden chair, looking to the right. He wears a suit, his hands folded on his knees. A door and a wall with vertical hatching suggest the room. Light from the front casts the right side of the figure and chair into clear shadow.
Context
In the 1860s, Degas portrayed his fellow artist Édouard Manet; both were then active in Paris. The etching falls in a phase of intense artistic exchange, when they painted and influenced each other. It counts among Degas's early printmaking efforts, which he undertook more frequently from the mid-1860s.
Impact
The dense, parallel strokes convey a calm, intimate mood. Because all accessories recede, attention goes to the sitter's posture and expression.
Technique
For this sheet, Degas worked a copper plate with etching and drypoint. The fine, uniformly directed lines shape body and shadow; drypoint yields soft, velvety tonal values in the dark areas.
AI-generated description text
Source: Metropolitan Museum of Art · Public Domain (CC0 1.0)