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Edgar Degas. Count Lepic and His Daughters.
1871. Oil on canvas. 65.5 x 81 cm.
E.G. Bührle Collection, Zurich.
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by Kirsten Hower, ARCA European Correspondent
Today
we honour the birthday of French Impressionist artist Edgar Degas
(1834-1917). Best known for his
depictions of dancers, Degas was both a sculptor and painter who combined
tradition with change in the 19th century art world. Like many famous artists, his work has
been admired and fallen prey to the criminal world. One of his paintings, Count
Lepic and His Daughters of 1871, was part of a four year recovery that was
only recently announced upon its completion in April of this year.
On
the afternoon of Sunday, February 10, 2008, three masked gunman stole four
paintings from the E.G. Bührle Collection in Zurich—one of the greatest Impressionist
and Post-Impressionist museums in Europe.
The four paintings, one each by Cézanne, Degas, van Gogh, and Monet,
were valued at $163 million and have all been recovered as of April 2012.[i] Degas’ painting was actually recovered
in 2009, but this information was kept quiet until the recovery of the final
and most expensive painting, Cézanne’s The
Boy in a Red Vest, was recovered in 2012. There was some damage to the paintings which had been cut
from their frames, including the Degas which thankfully only suffered damage to
the edges of the painting.[ii]
Degas’
group portrait of Count Lepic and his two daughters has an entirely
Impressionist look, particularly the girls who look rather Cassatt-like, though
it has moments of looking far more like charcoal or watercolour rather than an
oil painting on canvas. Lepic’s
face appears unfinished, his expression just shy of unreadable save for the
attentive gaze of a father for his daughter. The two girls stare out at the viewer with gazes both
knowing and angelically innocent.
One can imagine even a hardened criminal becoming uneasy under such a
gaze, especially after having damaged the painting during the theft.
Thankfully
for Degas, this particular theft of his artwork had a happy ending. Five works by Degas do not have such a
happy ending and are currently missing in conjunction to the infamous Isabella
Stewart Gardner Museum theft of 1990, including Cotège aux Environs de Florence (pencil and wash on paper). Hopefully these works will one day have
their happy ending as well.
Kirsten Hower is the Academic Program Assistant for ARCA. She is currently finishing her MLitt at Christie's Education.
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