Description
The young Infanta Margarita faces forward in Edgar Degas’s print after Velázquez, her broad skirt and patterned ruffles giving the small figure a formal presence. Dark surroundings bring the face and clothing into relief. The etched interpretation translates a royal portrait into lines and contrasts, inviting attention to how an earlier likeness acquires another surface through a different artist’s handling.
Made around 1861–62 in etching and drypoint, the print belongs to Degas’s early experiments with the medium. He looked to the work of Velázquez while exploring methods associated with Goya’s etched copies after the Spanish master. The image is therefore both an encounter with an earlier portrait and a work of artistic learning. Its interest lies in the meeting of inherited subject matter and the developing printmaker’s own treatment of line, density and contrast.
Read our guide to giclée prints or browse the Edgar Degas collection.
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