Description
In Bookshelves, Study for Edmond Duranty, Degas makes a writer’s surroundings the subject of a drawing. Rows of upright books establish a dense pattern above an angled surface, with a thick volume lying near the lower center. The setting is studied separately from the person who would inhabit the portrait. Dark brown chalk builds its structure, while white accents help distinguish one surface from another.
Made in 1879, the sheet records a preparatory stage rather than a complete portrait. Its paper was originally blue and has faded toward beige, a change that affects the balance between the ground and the chalk. Degas’s attention to the shelves shows how a portrait can depend on more than facial likeness. Books and their arrangement become part of the way a person is situated within an image.
Read our guide to giclée prints or browse the Edgar Degas collection.
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