Les Choristes (pastel)
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| Les Choristes |
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| Edgar Degas , 1877 |
| Musée d'Orsay, Paris |
Les Choristes ( The Choir Singers , also known as choristers in the opera or Les Figurants (The Extras) ) is a pastel over monotype by the impressionist Edgar Degas (1834–1917) from 1877. The work has a size of 32 cm × 27 cm and belongs to the inventory of the Musée d'Orsay in Paris .
description
The small chalk drawing shows a group of choir members, who often consisted of extras , on the stage in front of the curtain indicated on the right in the picture. The figures show different movements, from practiced pose to impromptu . The drawing belongs to an extensive series of pastels and paintings that Edgar Degas made from 1877 with scenes from ballet halls, operas, theaters and orchestras and which always show unusual perspectives and views of stage life that the normal theater audience cannot perceive. So the main character is moved into a corner and cut into by the picture frame. With this style of painting, Degas anticipated photography and film .
Provenance
The work was in the Gustave Caillebotte Collection until 1894 . After his death it was bequeathed to the Musée du Luxembourg in Paris , to which it belonged until 1896. The Louvre then became the owner of the painting. It was passed on to the Musée d'Orsay in 1986.
Theft and rediscovery
On December 31, 2009, it was stolen from the Musée Cantini , which had been on loan for a special exhibition, in Marseille . The Association of French National Museums has put the value at around 800,000 euros after the Marseille police initially assumed 30 million euros. The painting was discovered on February 16, 2018, during the routine inspection of a coach in the luggage compartment of a motorway parking lot east of Paris. The Musée de Orsay confirmed the authenticity of the find. No further information was initially given.
Exhibitions
The exhibitions are taken from the Musée d'Orsay website, among others.
- Troisième exposition impressionniste , Paris , 1877
- Works in Oil and Pastel by the Impressionists of Paris , New York , 1886
- Panama-Pacific International Exposition , San Francisco , 1915
- Founder's Day Exhibition , Pittsburgh , 1916
- Retrospective Collection of French art 1870-1910 lent by the Luxembourg Museum , Buffalo , 1916
- Exposition Degas : peintures, pastels et dessins, sculptures, eaux-fortes, lithographies et monotypes , Paris, 1924
- Pastels français , Paris, 1949
- Pastels et miniatures du 19e siècle , Paris, 1956
- Degas - oeuvres du musée du Louvre: peintures, pastels, dessins, sculptures , Paris, 1969
- Eugène Delacroix et l'impressionnisme , Paris, 1970
- Degas , Paris, 1988
- Cantini Museum, Marseille, 2009
Individual evidence
- ↑ Kurier.at of January 3, 2010
- ↑ Fiorella Minervino, Classics of Art
- ↑ Entry on bildindex.de
- ↑ a b c Website of the Musée d'Orsay
- ↑ Janca Imwolde: Edgar Degas. Tabular curriculum vitae in the LeMO ( DHM and HdG )
- ↑ Thieves steal Degas paintings . In: Kölner Stadt Anzeiger , accessed on January 1, 2010
- ↑ Report on swissinfo.ch
- ↑ Lost luggage: Degas painting stolen nine years ago is found on bus in: The Guardian , February 24, 2018, accessed on February 24, 2018