'Degas At Harvard' Opens Aug.1 Alfred M. Sackler Museum

:August 1 to November 27, the Harvard University Art Museums will present "Degas at Harvard," an exhibition examining the university's comprehensive holdings by Edgar Degas, one of the most important collections of the artist's work in the United States.

The exhibition will draw together more than 60 works from the Fogg's own collection, together with promised gifts and significant works from The Dumbarton Oaks and Research Library and Collection in Washington, D.C., and the Houghton Library at Harvard. The exhibition, which is organized by the Fogg Art Museum, will include paintings, sculpture, drawings, prints and photographs, and will be on view at the Arthur M. Sackler Museum.

Edgar Degas Chanteuse de Caf circa 1878 pastel on canvas 24 by 19 inches Fogg Art Museum

Edgar Degas, "Chanteuse de Café," circa 1878, pastel on canvas, 24¾ by 19¾ inches, Fogg Art Museum.

In 1911, the Fogg was the first museum to mount an exhibition of works by Degas and was the only museum to do so during the artist's lifetime. This exhibition explores the range and depth of Degas's artistic innovation, and Harvard's pivotal role in fostering understanding and scholarship of his works through the commitment of its curators, collectors and the generations of scholars who have worked with the collection at the Fogg.

Among the works featured in the exhibition will be the bronze sculpture "Little Dancer, Fourteen Years Old," 1880, the pastel "Chanteuse de Café," circa 1878, "After the Bath, Woman Drying Herself," 1893--98, which will be shown for the first time in 40 years due to its extreme fragility, and the photograph "United (Self-Portrait in his Library)," circa 1895, a gelatin silver print that shows Degas's fascination with portraits and his skill as a photographer.

Edgar Degas Untitled Self Portrait circa 1895 gelatin silver print 4 by 6 inches collection Fogg Art Museum

Edgar Degas, "Untitled Self Portrait," circa 1895, gelatin silver print, 4¾ by 6½ inches, collection Fogg Art Museum.

"Degas at Harvard" is curated by Edward Saywell, Charles C. Cunningham Sr Curatorial Associate in Drawings, and Stephen Wolohojian, curator, department of paintings, sculpture and decorative arts. It will be accompanied by a catalog with essays by Harvard curator Marjorie Benedict Cohn and Jean Sutherland Boggs, an independent scholar and former pupil of former Fogg director Paul Sachs, and a Leventritt lecture series involving many of today's leading Degas scholars.

The Arthur M. Sackler Museum is at 485 Broadway. Hours are Monday through Saturday, 10 to 5 pm, Sunday 1 to 5 pm. Admission is $6.50.

For information, 617-495-9400 or artmuseums.Harvard.edu.

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