When Edgar Degas died in 1917, his enormous art collection, consisting of several thousand paintings, drawings, and prints, was found by his heirs and came to light. This remarkable assemblage included a massive body of work by the French nineteenth-century masters whom Degas revered during his youth—Delacroix, Ingres, and Daumier and demonstrated Degas's profound interest in the art of certain of his contemporaries, particularly Manet, Cézanne, Gauguin, and Mary Cassatt. Only a small group of friends were aware of Degas’s passion for collecting and even a smaller group of selected ones had the privilege to enter his own apartment where the works were exhibited just like in a private museum. One of the guests who had the honor of visiting the collection, the journalist Arsène Alexandre, wrote that “Degas is possessed by the devil of collecting, rarer than one would think among artists.” His collection was such a well-kept secret that Alexandre also pointed out its inaccessibility.

Paul Mathey, Portrait of Edgar Degas,1882, graphite, 48x31.5 cm. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., Collection of Mr. And Mrs. Paul Mellon. Dedicated “to my friend Degas.”

Collecting was an aspect of Degas career that remains largely unknown: the artist left no clear exposition of the impulses behind his collecting and the collected works had no direct relation with the subjects of the works of his own art. Despite this fact, Degas compiled a handwritten inventory, a primary document for Degas’s collection that now is part of a private collection and that helped to understand the dynamics related to the works assembled through the years. The information part of the inventory contained explanations, comments, stories, thoughts, anecdotes that Degas had written on the occasion of the purchase of each of the works included in his own personal Wunderkammer. The typology of works Degas collected is quite varied, and not just limited to visual art: anything with aesthetic value attracted his eye.  Degas used to stop in front of bric-a-brac windows and buy old frames, for example: he was a true amateur of art, loved beautiful things not for speculation or vanity. The prevalence of portraits and nudes may reflect the importance of these two genres in Degas’s art; he also collected many landscapes. Although it is said that he disliked the countryside, Degas was far from insensitive to scenic views. In his collection he privileged sky studies, sunsets, mountains and seascapes. French artists were predominant, even though Degas also collected Japanese artists and prints, included works by Utamaro, Hokusai, and Hiroshige, the best of the Ukiyo-e school of art. Curiously enough, he did not own anything by Monet, whose works he found “formless” and whom he described as a mere “decorator.”Degas also encouraged younger artists and was curious about Cubism.

One of the pages of Degas’s inventory book containing an explanation about the purchase of a work by Destouche.

One of the pages of Degas’s inventory book containing an explanation about a work by the Japanese artist Watanabe Setei who donated to Degas a composition with birds.

Watanabe Setei, Birds on a Branch, 1878, watercolor, 24.4x19.4 cm. Inscription in Japanese, For Mr. Degas,. Seitei, at a party. Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown,Mass.

It is not known when exactly Degas began collecting; it is certain that collecting run in the blood of his family: his father was a collector, his grandfather collected paintings and books. Around 1870, although Degas could count on limited resources, he bought a body of work by Impressionist artists like Pissarro, and Renoir. Degas was also involved both as an artist and a collector in the revival of original printmaking. In the 1870s he began to collect Daumier’s lithographs, and ended up having a massive collection of 750 works by this leading illustrator that Degas deeply admired for his imagery. During the same period of time he acquired various Japanese prints, drawings, books -he belonged to a circle of Japanophiles- and began to buy the work of Manet,a dear friend of his. The most intensive period of Degas’s collecting was around 1890: at that time the successful sales of his own art allowed the artist to indulge his passion to the full. Often in the company of other artists friends he would visit studios, galleries, and sometimes even bid anonymously at auctions. As many belonging to his close circle of friends reported, Degas preferred to use his money to acquire artworks rather than leading a luxurious life: his living ethos was frugal so that he could totally devote himself to his art creation and art collecting. The major purchase of 1895 was a piece by Delacroix. Unfortunately in the same year,he was forced to sell part of his collection to meet financial obligations caused by the crisis that engulfed his family business. Despite his difficulties, Degas continued to buy with compulsiveness, and even his friends became alarmed: “Degas keeps it up, buying, buying. In the evening he asks himself how he will pay for what he bought that day, and the next morning he starts in again: more Ingres, some Delacroix, an El Greco this week. And then he takes a certain pride in announcing that he can no longer afford to clothe himself.” In 1901 he told dealer Hector Brame that he “knew how to amass beautiful paintings, but not money.”

Honoré Daumier, Rue Transnonain, le 15 Avril, 1834, Printer: Delaunois (French, active Paris), August–September 1834, lithograph, 36.4 x 55.1. Rogers Fund, 1920. Courtesy of MET.

El Greco, Saint Ildefonso, 1603-1614,oil on canvas, 112x65.8 cm. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., Andrew W. Mellon Collection.

Even though Degas’s means were modest if compared to other collectors, he succeeded in assembling a high-profile collection with many highlights that proved to be a rare resource also for other artists. It was possible for various reasons: many works were gifts from other artists or exchanges for his own works; the works of some of his contemporaries like Gauguin and Cézanne were still affordable at the time Degas acquired them, because these artists had received little public recognition; he settled agreements with certain dealers so that they would give him discounted prices in return of his own works. The wide array of artworks collected mirrored Degas’s way of living, and this is conveyed also by the particular way the collection was installed at his apartment. Degas, who lived in an apartment spread over three floors in Montmartre -the cradle of cafes, artists’ studios, galleries-, attentively arranged the collection on the floor below the chaotic studio where he used to paint and work. The collection, set in the living areas, was orderly arranged and his apartment, far from being opulent, seemed to be furnished to highlight the collected pieces in the best way. Unlike many other artists of the time that lived in luxurious mansions, Degas’s apartment was modest yet comfortable. It is certain that Degas had thought carefully about the display of his collection, since on more than one occasion he had shown concern for the effective display of art. Degas arranged his artworks across the entire apartment according to their size; the first floor of his apartment was devoted to major artworks part of the collection, with pieces by El Greco (at the time a taste for his works was rather rare, and only a few advanced collectors were interested in his pieces), Delacroix, Ingres, Van Gogh all arranged as in a private museum and in a room often kept locked. The more intimate rooms of the house hosted smaller pieces that echoed the same intimate tones of the rooms where they were set.

Paul Gaugin, Woman of the Mango, 1892, oil on canvas, 72.7x44.5 cm. The Baltimore Museum of Art, The Cone Collection.

Paul Cézanne, Three Pears, 1888-89, graphite and watercolor, 21.5x30.5 cm. The Henry and Rose Pearlman Foundation.

Degas was well aware of the high-quality of his collection, this is the reason why between 1895 and 1900 he was quite preoccupied with keeping it intact as a museum. It is possible that Degas’s choices regarding what to buy have been influenced by this precise scheme. Therefore Degas collected in a systematic way, especially the works of leading artists which he copied after and drew inspiration from. For example, he collected all the genres Manet worked in. Their friendship was at its most intimate in late 1870s early 1870s and even after they grew apart, Degas never stopped admiring Manet. Delacroix is represented by paintings, but also a rich body of graphic works (200 drawings, often studies of the human figure, as well as of accessories revealing how Degas was curious about the modus operandi of other artists, in particular the color theories by Delacroix); Ingres, whom Degas admired for the purity of his line, is represented by all aspects of his work.

Eduard Manet, The Ham, 1875-1878, oil on canvas,32.4x41.2 cm. Glasgow Museum, Burrell Collection.

Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, Madame Jacques-Louis Leblanc (Françoise Poncelle, 1788–1839),1823, oil on canvas,119.4 x 92.7 cm. Catharine Lorillard Wolfe Collection, Wolfe Fund, 1918. Courtesy of MET.

For this portrait there are more than two dozen drawings investigating a variety of poses (Musée Ingres, Montauban). Similar studies do not exist for the likeness of Madame Leblanc’s husband (19.77.1).

Eugène Delacroix, Three studies for Liberty, July 28, 1830, graphite heightened with white. Collection of the Louvre.

Eugène Delacroix, Study of armors, 1825 and Cloud Study, 1849, now part of the Collection of the Louvre.

The pieces in Degas’s collection demonstrate the complex ways Degas comprehended the genius of each master and in some way made it his own, it shows the lively interaction with his own work. It was also rather unique for its concentration of historic works and masters: Degas’s contemporary peers would just buy each other’s works while his collection demonstrated the notion of a modern French painting tradition. When Degas died, his heirs also found that Degas’ s main collector was Degas himself since he deliberately kept a great amount of his own works in his studio. These works were not the ballet dancers of his middle years that made him well-known globally, but stunning early portraits, mysterious narrative paintings, boldly composed late works that explode with color, and examples of his consummate draftsmanship.

Degas’s collection revealed another dimension of an artist, demonstrated his visual sophistication and limitless capacity to assimilate what he saw. This is the reason why upon the announcement that Degas’s holdings would be sold at auction in 1918, museums, collectors, investors mobilized their resources and the auction became a major event of that year. The event became even more significant because business transactions were almost at a standstill both in Europe and America due to the first world war. The auctions organized - four sales- were a success despite the fact that Paris was under fire. Nowadays pieces coming from the Degas’s collection are part of the permanent collections of museums like The MET (the only American museum that bought Degas’s pieces at the time of the auctions), The National Gallery, London and the Louvre, Paris to name a few.

Paul Helleu, The Auctioneers at the Egdar Degas Atelier Sale, 1918, graphite and black, red and white chalk on the cover of the second atelier sale catalogue, 26x37.5 cm.