Self-Portrait

About this artwork

A work of surprising sophistication for a relatively young practitioner of the art, this etching was clearly inspired by the early graphic self-portraits of Rembrandt. Degas gleaned from the Baroque master his capacity to create an atmosphere from which a convincing presence emerges. This probing self-appraisal was made when the artist was only twenty-three years old. The maturity of Degas’s gaze is matched by the sophistication of his technique. He has printed this etching with a personalized,...

Art Historical Context

This 1857 Self-Portrait by Hilaire Germain Edgar Degas captures the artist in his youth through the medium of etching. Degas, a key figure in 19th-century French art, is celebrated for his innovative approaches to capturing movement and light, though he is often grouped with the Impressionists despite his unique realist tendencies. Executed in black ink on ivory laid paper, the etching technique involves drawing on a wax-coated metal plate and using acid to etch the lines, resulting in fine, detailed prints. This process allowed Degas to produce a small, intimate image measuring 23.2 × 14.3 cm, with the paper sheet at 32.4 × 23.3 cm. Housed in the Prints and Drawings department of the Art Institute of Chicago, this work offers museum visitors a chance to see Degas's early self-examination, reflecting the personal and experimental nature of printmaking in his oeuvre.

About the Artist

Hilaire Germain Edgar Degas · 1834–1917

Hilaire Germain Edgar Degas, born on July 19, 1834, in Paris to a prosperous banking family, was the eldest of five children. His mother, Célestine Musson, a Creole from New Orleans whose father Germain Musson had roots in Haiti, died when Degas was thirteen, leaving his father Augustin and unmarried uncles to guide him. Educated at the elite Lycée Louis-le-Grand, where he earned a baccalauréat in...