Édouard Manet, Seated, Turned to the Left

Édouard Manet, Seated, Turned to the Left

Edgar Degas

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

During the 1860s, when Degas was very active as a portraitist, he made his friend Manet the subject of a group of drawings and prints, several of which are in the Museum's collection. This etched portrait evolved from a black-chalk drawing in our collection that shows Manet seated casually on a wooden chair. With his overcoat flung open and his hat clasped in his hand, he appears to have dropped by Degas's studio for a brief visit. The print is a rarity; only three impressions from the plate (printed before Degas's tinkering ruined it) had been documented before this crisp example unexpectedly turned up at an auction in Switzerland.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Édouard Manet, Seated, Turned to the LeftÉdouard Manet, Seated, Turned to the LeftÉdouard Manet, Seated, Turned to the LeftÉdouard Manet, Seated, Turned to the LeftÉdouard Manet, Seated, Turned to the Left

The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.