Description
In Head of a Saint, Degas studies a right-facing profile taken from the work of Fra Angelico. Pale drapery surrounds the head, drawing attention toward the face’s quiet contour. By isolating this fragment, he leaves the larger religious composition aside and concentrates on how the form meets light. Black chalk and white highlights give the drawing a restrained range of tones on pink-beige paper.
This is Degas’s drawing after Fra Angelico, not an original work by the Renaissance painter. The source gives him a figure to reconsider through his own materials and hand. A devotional image becomes a close study of how a head can be described, with the pale accents complementing the darker chalk. The concentration on one carefully observed fragment gives the modest sheet its quiet force.
Read our guide to giclée prints or browse the Edgar Degas collection.
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