{
"data": {
"id": 130528,
"accession_number": "1953.268",
"share_license_status": "CC0",
"tombstone": "Diego Martelli, 1879. Edgar Degas (French, 1834\u20131917). Charcoal and white chalk; sheet: 44 x 31.3 cm (17 5/16 x 12 5/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, John L. Severance Fund, 1953.268",
"current_location": null,
"title": "Diego Martelli",
"creation_date": "1879",
"creation_date_earliest": 1879,
"creation_date_latest": 1879,
"artists_tags": [
"male"
],
"culture": [
"France, 19th century"
],
"technique": "charcoal and white chalk",
"support_materials": [
{
"description": "brown wove paper",
"watermarks": []
}
],
"department": "Drawings",
"collection": "DR - French",
"type": "Drawing",
"measurements": "Sheet: 44 x 31.3 cm (17 5/16 x 12 5/16 in.)",
"dimensions": {
"sheet": {
"height": 0.44,
"height_inch": 17,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.3125,
"width": 0.313,
"width_inch": 12,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.3125
}
},
"state_of_the_work": null,
"edition_of_the_work": null,
"copyright": null,
"inscriptions": [
{
"inscription": "stamped in red, at lower left: Degas estate stamp (Lugt 658)",
"inscription_translation": null,
"inscription_remark": null,
"sortorder": null
}
],
"exhibitions": {
"current": [
{
"id": 301184,
"title": "Department of Prints and Drawings Opening Exhibition",
"description": "Department of Prints and Drawings Opening Exhibition. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (March 3, 1958-October 11, 1959).",
"opening_date": "1958-03-03T05:00:00"
},
{
"id": 302020,
"title": "Aspects of Drawing",
"description": "Aspects of Drawing. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 10-April 2, 1961).",
"opening_date": "1961-01-10T05:00:00"
},
{
"id": 304645,
"title": "Drawings",
"description": "Drawings. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 11-September 10, 1963).",
"opening_date": "1963-01-11T05:00:00"
},
{
"id": 304726,
"title": "French Drawings",
"description": "French Drawings. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 16, 1965-February 16, 1966).",
"opening_date": "1965-11-16T05:00:00"
},
{
"id": 516000,
"title": "Drawings by Edgar Degas",
"description": "Drawings by Edgar Degas. Saint Louis Art Museum, St. Louis, MO (organizer) (January 20-February 26, 1967); Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA (March 10-April 30, 1967); Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis, MN (May 16-June 25, 1967).",
"opening_date": "1967-01-20T05:00:00"
},
{
"id": 442453,
"title": "Degas 1879",
"description": "Degas 1879. National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (organizer) (August 13-September 30, 1979).",
"opening_date": "1979-08-13T04:00:00"
},
{
"id": 304414,
"title": "Idea to Image: Preparatory Studies from the Renaissance to Impressionism",
"description": "Idea to Image: Preparatory Studies from the Renaissance to Impressionism. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (February 19-March 23, 1980).",
"opening_date": "1980-02-19T05:00:00"
},
{
"id": 309571,
"title": "The Impressionist Aesthetic",
"description": "The Impressionist Aesthetic. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 10-October 31, 1982).",
"opening_date": "1982-08-10T04:00:00"
},
{
"id": 309655,
"title": "National Schools of Style",
"description": "National Schools of Style. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 14-September 18, 1983).",
"opening_date": "1983-06-14T04:00:00"
},
{
"id": 311433,
"title": "Directions in Drawing: 1750-1988",
"description": "Directions in Drawing: 1750-1988. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (April 2-August 4, 1991).",
"opening_date": "1991-04-02T05:00:00"
},
{
"id": 311635,
"title": "French Drawings from the Collection",
"description": "French Drawings from the Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 13, 1994-March 12, 1995).",
"opening_date": "1994-12-13T05:00:00"
},
{
"id": 224301,
"title": "Edgar Degas and the Italians in Paris",
"description": "Edgar Degas and the Italians in Paris. Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh, Scotland (December 12, 2003-February 29, 2004).",
"opening_date": "2003-09-14T00:00:00"
}
],
"legacy": [
{
"description": "Edgar Degas: Pastelle, Olskizzen, Zeichnungen. Kunsthalle Tubingen (January 14 - March 18, 1984); Nationalgalerie, Berlin (April 4 - May 20, 1984).",
"opening_date": "1984-01-14T00:00:00"
},
{
"description": "Degas 1879. National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh (August 13 - September 30, 1979).",
"opening_date": "1979-08-13T00:00:00"
},
{
"description": "Drawings by Degas. City Art Museum, St. Louis (January 20 - February 26, 1967); Philadelphia Museum of Art (March 10 - April 30, 1967); Minneapolis Institute of Arts (May 16 - June 25, 1967).",
"opening_date": "1967-01-20T00:00:00"
}
]
},
"provenance": [
{
"description": "Estate of Edgar Degas [1834-1917], Paris",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": [
"Lugt 658, lower left, in red ink
"
],
"date": "1879-1919",
"sortorder": 1
},
{
"description": "(Galerie Georges Petit, third Degas sale, Paris, April 8-9, 1919, no. 160.1, probably sold to Georges Viau)",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": [],
"date": "1919",
"sortorder": 2
},
{
"description": "Georges Viau [1855-1939], Paris",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": [
"According to label formerly on back of frame; no. 21, titled \"Portrait de graveur Diego Martelli \u00e9tude pour le tableau\"
"
],
"date": "probably 1919-?",
"sortorder": 3
},
{
"description": "Mme. Demotte, Paris",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "?-?",
"sortorder": 4
},
{
"description": "B. Natanson, Paris",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": [
"According to label formerly on back of frame.
"
],
"date": "?-?",
"sortorder": 5
},
{
"description": "(Victor D. Spark, New York, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH)",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": [],
"date": "by 1950-1953",
"sortorder": 6
},
{
"description": "Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": [],
"date": "1953-",
"sortorder": 7
}
],
"find_spot": null,
"related_works": [],
"former_accession_numbers": [],
"did_you_know": "The ghostly white tone of Diego Martelli's face was likely pink or peach when Degas made the work, and has gradually faded over time.",
"early_education_description": null,
"artlens_description": null,
"description": "This sheet is one of many studies that Degas made in 1879 of his friend and supporter, the Italian art critic and patron Diego Martelli (1839-1896). Martelli was one of the most important champions of progressive modern art in Italy, and his writings on the 1879 Impressionist show became famous, playing a crucial role in publicizing the movement. This sheet relates to two painted portraits of the critic, one in the National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh, and the other in the National Museum of Fine Arts, Buenos Aires.",
"external_resources": {
"wikidata": [
"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q79912372"
],
"internet_archive": [
"https://archive.org/details/clevelandart-1953.268-diego-martelli"
]
},
"citations": [
{
"citation": "Catalogue des tableaux, pastels, et dessins par Edgar Degas et provenant de son atelier...3e vente... Paris: Georges Petit, 1919.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and reproduced: no. 160",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "\"Accessions of American and Canadian Museums, April - June 1953.\" Art Quarterly 16, no. 4 (Winter 1953): 346-365.",
"page_number": "Mentioned: p. 353",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Francis, Henry S. \"Drawings by Degas.\" Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 44, no. 10 (December 1957): 212-217.",
"page_number": "Mentioned: p. 216; Reproduced: cover",
"url": "https://www.jstor.org/stable/25142248"
},
{
"citation": "The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 602",
"url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1958/page/n112"
},
{
"citation": "Boggs, Jean Sutherland. Portraits by Degas. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1962.",
"page_number": "Mentioned: p. 123",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 172",
"url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1966/page/n196"
},
{
"citation": "Boggs, Jean Sutherland. Drawings by Degas. Exh. Cat. St. Louis: City Art Museum of Saint Louis, 1966.",
"page_number": "Mentioned: p. 142, no. 89; Reproduced: p. 141",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 172",
"url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1969/page/n196"
},
{
"citation": "Degas' Drawings. New York: Dover, 1973.",
"page_number": "Mentioned: p. viii, no. 76; Reproduced: pl. 76",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 213",
"url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1978/page/n233"
},
{
"citation": "Pickvance, Ronald. Degas 1879. Exh. Cat. Edinburgh: National Gallery of Scotland, 1979.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and reproduced: p. 54, no. 56",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Johnson, Mark M. Idea to Image: Preparatory Studies from the Renaissance to Impressionism. Exh. Cat. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1980.",
"page_number": "Mentioned: pp. 59-60; Reproduced: p. 60",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Adriani, G\u00f6tz. Edgar Degas: Pastelle, Olskizzen, Zeichnungen. Exh. Cat. Tubingen: Kunsthalle, 1984.",
"page_number": "Mentioned: pp. 372-3, no. 130",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Sutton, Denys. Edgar Degas: Life and Work. New York: Rizzoli, 1986.",
"page_number": "Mentioned: pp. 10, 290; Reproduced: p. 286, pl. 276",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Boggs, Jean Sutherland, et al. Degas. Exh. Cat. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1988.",
"page_number": "Mentioned: p. 312",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Weingrod, Carmi. \"The Essence of Charcoal.\" American Artist 57, no. 616 (November 1993): 10-16.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 12",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Stratis, Harriet K. \"Unintended Outcomes: Recognizing Change in 19th-Century French Drawings.\" In Nineteenth-Century French Drawings: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 11-23. Lewes, UK, Cleveland, Ohio: GILES; Cleveland Museum of Art, 2023.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and reproduced: p. 60-61, fig. 40",
"url": ""
}
],
"url": "https://clevelandart.org/art/1953.268",
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"creditline": "John L. Severance Fund",
"image_credit": null,
"sketchfab_id": null,
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"athena_id": 130528,
"creators": [
{
"id": 1759,
"description": "Edgar Degas (French, 1834\u20131917)",
"extent": null,
"qualifier": null,
"role": "artist",
"biography": "Son of a Parisian banker, Edgar Degas enrolled in law school in 1853 following his father's wishes. But he had already shown an interest in art and had also registered to copy at the Louvre. In 1855 he entered the \u00c9cole des Beaux-Arts and became a student of Louis Lamothe (1822-1869), a former pupil of Ingres (q.v.). One year later Degas made the traditional journey to Italy, remaining there for three years. He visited family members in Naples and Florence and attended life classes at the Villa Medici in Rome. A visit to Normandy in 1861 may have introduced him to the racetrack. In Paris he continued to study at the Louvre, where he met Manet (q.v.) in 1862. Apart from his continuous interest in portraiture and history painting, Degas began to pay attention to subjects of modern life. Between 1865 and 1870, he exhibited at the Salon. At the time of the Franco-Prussian War, he enlisted in the artillery, but because of his poor eyesight he served (with Manet) in the infantry. After the war he traveled first to London and, in 1872-73, visited his uncle and brothers who had a cotton business in New Orleans. Degas participated in the first impressionist exhibition of 1874. He continued to exhibit with these artists until 1886 but never completely considered himself a member of the group, preferring to call himself a realist or naturalist. While many of the impressionists painted en plein air, Degas worked with models in his studio and, later in his career, from his imagination. In addition to painting, he experimented often with monotypes, engraving, pastels, sculpture, and photography. He traveled extensively-London, Naples, Spain, Morocco, and Switzerland-but continued to draw his subject matter from modern-day Paris. Other recurring themes would be the female nude and the ballet dancer. After the impressionist exhibition of 1886, Degas no longer participated in group shows. Instead he sold his works to private dealers such as Durand-Ruel and Ambroise Vollard. In the 1890s he began his own art collection, which, besides many works on paper, included paintings by such artists as Ingres, C\u00e9zanne (q.v.), Delacroix (q.v.), Gauguin (q.v.), and van Gogh (q.v.). His own art at the time became characterized by broader strokes of paint, charcoal, and pastel and the use of more vibrant colors, partly because of problems with his vision. His failing eyesight and poor health caused him to abandon his pursuit of art during the last years of his life.",
"name_in_original_language": null,
"birth_year": "1834",
"death_year": "1917",
"use_in_caption": true,
"include_extent": false,
"weight": 1
}
],
"legal_status": "accessioned",
"accession_date": "1953-07-17T00:00:00",
"sortable_date": 1879,
"date_added_to_oa": null,
"date_text": "1879",
"collapse_artists": false,
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"record_type": "object",
"conservation_statement": null,
"has_conservation_images": false,
"cover_accession_number": null,
"is_nazi_era_provenance": false,
"impression": null,
"alternate_titles": [],
"is_highlight": false,
"updated_at": "2026-05-29 06:44:59.364000"
}
}