The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 19, 2025

A sheet of various sketches of faces, people, and horses. At the top left, there is a sketch of the side profile of a man, at the top right, there is a sketch of the side profile of a face and close below that face is a sketch of the side profile of a woman. At the center, there is a large sketch of a woman looking to our left and the bottom of the paper contains full body sketches of people and horses.

Sheet of Studies and Sketches

1858

Edgar Degas

(French, 1834–1917)
France, 19th century
graphite, pen and dark brown ink, and watercolor on thick ivory wove paper
Sheet: 30.4 x 23.5 cm (11 15/16 x 9 1/4 in.)
John L. Severance Fund 1951.430
Location: Not on view

Did You Know?

The date Degas wrote on this drawing is incorrect; he didn't visit Florence until 1858, and must have inscribed the sheet years later.

Description

Degas traveled to Florence, Italy, in July 1858, where he made this sheet of studies. The featured imagery is fragmented and dissociated, suggesting the young artist's engagement with art of the past. The refined female head drawn at center in graphite was copied from a drawing then attributed to Leonardo da Vinci in the Uffizi Gallery's collection. Other sketches record Degas's responses to Florentine sculpture. At upper right, he sketched an informal portrait of his cousin Giulia Bellelli, probably from life.
  • 1858 - 1917
    Studio of the artist
    1917-1919
    Estate of Edgar Degas [1834-1917], Paris
    1919
    (his fourth sale, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, July 2-4, 1919, no. 74b, sold to Nunès)
    1919-?
    (Galerie Nunès et Fiquet, Paris)
    after 1919-by 1931
    Private collection
    by 1950-1951
    (Victor D. Spark, New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
    1951-
    Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
    Provenance Footnotes
    1 Lugt 658, lower left, in red ink; Lugt 657, verso, upper center, in red ink.
    2 As "Tête de femme. -- Tête d'homme. -- Lutteurs. -- Cavalier," for 2,000 F.
  • Catalogue des tableaux, pastels et dessins par Edgar Degas et provenant de son atelier. Paris: Galerie Georges Petit, 1919. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 70, no. 74b
    George, Waldemar. "The Youth of Degas." Formes 15 (May 1931). Reproduced: after p. 76
    Graber, Hans. Edgar Degas: Nach eigenen und fremden Zeugnissen. Basel: Benno Schwabe, 1942. Mentioned: p. 246, Reproduced: opp. p. 20.
    Henry S. Francis. "Drawings by Degas." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 44, no. 10 (December 1957): 212-217 Mentioned: p. 213; Reproduced: p. 210 www.jstor.org
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958. Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 601 archive.org
    Vitali, Lamberto. “Three Italian Friends of Degas.” Burlington Magazine 105, no. 723 (June 1963): 266-73. Mentioned: pp. 266 n. 4, 269 n. 6
    Reymert, Martin L. H. and Gary Koehler. Ingres & Delacroix through Degas & Puvis de Chavannes: The Figure in French Art, 1800–1870. Exh. cat. New York: Shepherd Gallery, 1975. Mentioned and reproduced: cover, pp. 317-18, no. 134
    Russoli, Franco. L’Opera completa di Degas. Milan: Rizzoli, 1978. Reproduced: pp. 86-87, no. 17
    Thomson, Richard. The Private Degas. Exh. cat. London: Arts Council of Great Britain, 1987. Mentioned: pp. 15-17, 51, 138, no. 10; Reproduced: plate 65.
    DeGrazia, Diane and Carter E. Foster. Master Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2000. Mentioned: p. 8, pp. 132-33, p. 290; Reproduced: p. 133
    “A Walking Tour: The entire new museum wing by wing, with curators calling out a few favorite works in the collection.” Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine 54, no. 1 (January/February 2014): 8-33. Reproduced and Mentioned: p. 14 archive.org
    Cleveland Museum of Art. Museum Masters: 2016-17 Companion Guide. [Cleveland, Ohio]: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2016. Mentioned and Reproduced: P. 16
    Reff, Theodore. The Letters of Edgar Degas. New York: Wildenstein Plattner, 2020. Mentioned: vol. 1, p. 114 n. 3.
    Salsbury, Britany. “Nineteenth-Century French Drawings: The widely recognized collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art.” Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine vol. 62, no. 4 (December 2022): Cover, 18-19. Reproduced and Mentioned: p. 18. archive.org
    Salsbury, Britany. Degas and the Laundress: Women, Work, and Impressionism Exh. Cat. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2023. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 2, fig. 2
    Mayhew, Timothy David. "Traditional 19th-Century French Graphite Drawing Materials and Techniques." In Nineteenth-Century French Drawings: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 43-51. Lewes, UK, Cleveland, Ohio: GILES; Cleveland Museum of Art, 2023. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 48-49, fig. 28
    Salsbury, Britany. Nineteenth-Century French Drawings: The Cleveland Museum of Art. Lewes, UK, Cleveland, Ohio: GILES; Cleveland Museum of Art, 2023. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 98-99, no. 10
  • Nineteenth-Century French Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 20-June 11, 2023).
    Degas: A Passion for Perfection. Denver Art Museum, Denver, CO (organizer) (February 11-May 20, 2018).
    Treasures on Paper from the Collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 9-June 8, 2014).
    Master Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 27-October 17, 2000); The Morgan Library & Museum, New York, NY (May 23-August 19, 2001); Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Houston, TX (October 14, 2001-January 6, 2002).
    French Drawings from the Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 13, 1994-March 12, 1995).
    Directions in Drawing: 1750-1988. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (April 2-August 4, 1991).
    The Private Degas. Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (January 20-February 28, 1987); Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge CB2 1RB (March 17-May 3, 1987).
    The Lessons of the Academy. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 8-May 29, 1983).
    Northern European Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 16, 1982-January 9, 1983).
    Ingres & Delacroix through Degas & Puvis de Chavannes: The Figure in French Art, 1800–1870. Shepherd Gallery, New York, NY (organizer) (May 20-June 28, 1975).
    French Drawings. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 16, 1965-February 16, 1966).
    19th and 20th Century Drawings. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 19-March 24, 1965).
    Drawings. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 11-September 10, 1963).
    Aspects of Drawing. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 10-April 2, 1961).
    Department of Prints and Drawings Opening Exhibition. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (March 3, 1958-October 11, 1959).
  • {{cite web|title=Sheet of Studies and Sketches|url=false|author=Edgar Degas|year=1858|access-date=19 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1951.430