Édouard Manet, Seated, Holding His Hat

Description

Édouard Manet sits with his bearded face turned slightly to the right in this drawing by Edgar Degas. A rounded hat rests in his hand near his knees, while sketchy lines suggest the seat beneath him. The informal arrangement gives the fellow painter an immediate human presence, making the likeness feel like a close encounter rather than a ceremonial portrait.

Drawn around 1868, the sheet was a preparatory study for an etched portrait made a few years after the two artists first met at the Louvre. That connection gives the drawing another dimension: one painter studies the appearance of another through the everyday language of line and tone. Its interest lies in the balance between recognition and preparation, where an individual likeness emerges within a work still closely connected to the artist’s process.