Edgar Degas, In a café (The Absinthe drinker) c. 1875–76, oil on canvas, 92 x 68.5 cm, Musée d’Orsay, Paris
Credit: © RMN-Grand Palais (Musée d’Orsay) / Martine Beck-Coppola
The largest survey of the work of Edgar Degas ever staged in Australia opens this coming Friday at Melbourne’s National Gallery of Victoria as part of their Winter Masterpieces series, and if the images below are any indication it promises to be exactly that – a masterpiece retrospective of the work of one of history’s most revered and influential artists.
Degas: A New Vision will showcase more than 200 works by the famed French impressionist, whose vast oeuvre created over 50 years is largely characterised by his quietly observant paintings of ballerinas, women at work and in contemplative repose. Encompassing drawing, printmaking, sculpture, photography and, of course, painting, A New Vision is also a world premiere and a joint enterprise between the NGV and The Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, who will host the major retrospective of works drawn from over 40 cities and 65 collections in October this year.
Director of the NGV, Tony Ellwood has remarked of the exhibition that it “showcases [Degas] as one of the defining artists of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Considered one of the world’s most celebrated and significant artists, his influence upon modern and contemporary art is undeniable. Degas: A New Vision will provide audiences with a rare experience to truly be immersed in the creativity and originality of his art, giving visitors a deeper and richer understanding of his brilliance.”
You can preview select works from the exhibit below. Tickets are on sale now and can be purchased here.
Degas: A New Vision opens June 24 at the NGV and will run until September 18.
Edgar Degas, Victoria Dubourg c. 1868–69, oil on canvas, 81.3 x 64.8 cm, Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, Ohio
Credit: Gift of Mr. and Mrs. William E. Levis (1963.45)
Edgar Degas, Woman seated on the edge of the, bath sponging her neck 1880–95, oil and essence on paper mounted to canvas, 52.2 x 67.5 cm, Musée d’Orsay, Paris
Credit: © RMN-Grand Palais (Musée d’Orsay) / Hervé Lewandowski
Edgar Degas, Family portrait also called The Bellelli family 1867, oil on canvas, 201 x 249.5 cm, Musée d’Orsay, Paris
Credit: © Musée d’Orsay, Dist. RMN-Grand Palais / Patrice Schmidt
Edgar Degas, Finishing the arabesque 1877, oil and essence, pastel on canvas, 67.4 x 38 cm, Musée d’Orsay, Paris
Credit: © Musée d’Orsay, Dist. RMN-Grand Palais / Patrice Schmidt
Edgar Degas, Woman in a tub c. 1883, pastel, 70.0 x 70.0 cm, Tate, London
Credit: Bequeathed by Mrs A.F. Kessler 1983, © Tate, London 2016
Edgar Degas, Dancers on the stage c. 1899, oil on canvas, 76.0 x 82.0 cm, Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon, Legs Jacqueline Delubac, 1997
Credit: © Lyon MBA – Photo RMN / Ojeda, Le Mage
Edgar Degas, A cotton office in New Orleans 1873, oil on canvas, 73 x 92 cm, Musée des Beaux-Arts, Pau
Credit: © RMN-Grand Palais / Michèle Bellot / Madeleine Coursaget
Edgar Degas, Edmondo and Thérèse Morbilli c. 1865, oil on canvas, 116.5 x 88.3 cm, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Gift of Robert Treat Paine, 2nd
Credit: © 2016 Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Tile image: Edgar Degas, The rehearsal c. 1874, oil on canvas, 58.4 x 83.8 cm, Lent by Glasgow Life (Glasgow Museums) on behalf of Glasgow City Council: from the Burrell Collection with the, approval of the Burrell Trustees, © CSG CIC Glasgow Museums Collection
Cover image: Edgar Degas, Rehearsal hall at the Opéra, rue Le Peletier 1872, oil on canvas, 32.7 x 46.3 cm, Musée d’Orsay, Paris, © RMN-Grand Palais (Musée d’Orsay) / Hervé Lewandowski
