Edgar Degas

EDGAR DEGAS (Paris, 1834 - 1917).
"Cheval s'enlevant sur l'obstacle".
Bronze with brown patina.
Exemplary numbered 48 IX/IX.
Stamp with Degas' signature on the base.
Stamp "CIRE PERDUE C. VALSUANI".
Casting made under the supervision of the artist's family.
Provenance: European private collection.
Reference Bibliography:
- Hébrard 48; Pingeot 43; Rewald 9; Czestochowski 48.
This edition includes a print run marked A through T and a print run numbered in Roman numerals I/IX through IX/IX.
A notarized copy of the certificate of authenticity from Artco France Éditeur d'Art dated 2007 will be given to the buyer.
We thank the Degas committee for their collaboration. A certificate of authenticity may be requested at the buyer's expense.
Measurements: 28,5 cm (height).

Horsemen and horses were a recurrent and important theme in the work of Edgar Degas. However, Degas does not depict them in the traditional manner; he approaches them in his characteristic style, which focuses on movement, unusual composition and analysis of the figure. The surface of the bronze, which deliberately retains the texture and markings of the original wax modeling, reflects Degas's interest in process and materiality, rather than a polished, perfect finish.

This work falls within the last stage of Degas's career, a period when his eyesight was beginning to fail and sculpture became an increasingly important medium for him. It allowed him to explore three-dimensional form and movement in a tactile way, almost like a drawing in space.

This piece, originally conceived in wax and other malleable materials around 1890, was not cast in bronze during the artist's lifetime. Like the vast majority of Degas' sculptures, the bronzes we know today are posthumous casts authorized by his heirs. After Degas' death in 1917, about 150 wax, clay and plasticine sculptures in various states of preservation were discovered in his studio. Seventy-four of the best preserved models were selected to be cast in bronze by the prestigious Parisian foundry A.A. Hébrard between 1919 and 1921.

The edition to which the work under bidding belongs was made by the Valsuani foundry and bears their foundry stamp.

The quality of this casting and the legitimacy of its provenance make this work a unique piece within the sculptural corpus of Degas, of great interest to both private collectors and museum institutions.

The relevance of Edgar Degas in the history of modern art is indisputable: a pioneer in the representation of the body in movement, his sculptural work anticipated many of the formal concerns of the twentieth century. Although conceived as private studies, his sculptures - today present in museums such as the Musée d'Orsay, the Metropolitan Museum or the National Gallery of Art - are considered fundamental to understanding the transition between the academic tradition and modernity. This piece, therefore, not only embodies Degas' technical mastery, but also his essential place in the canon of modern sculpture.