How solid is an art provenance text? Analysis of a Degas sculpture at the NGA

"Probably", "possibly", "apparently", "proposes" and "allegedly" in texts for Degas' Dancer Adjusting the Shoulder Strap of Her Bodice, original wax 1880s/1890s, cast 1920/1949 at the NGA

The National Gallery of Art has not published an image of the Degas Dancer Adjusting the Shoulder Strap of Her Bodice 

How solid is a provenance? In this post we examine the language in the texts for Degas' sculpture Dancer Adjusting the Shoulder Strap of Her Bodice (Accession Number: 1985.64.64)

The NGA's exhibition history for Dancer Adjusting the Shoulder Strap of Her Bodice  is qualified by "probably" for 1949, 1951, and 1958.  There is no exhibition history prior to 1949.

The NGA's provenance for Dancer Adjusting the Shoulder Strap of Her Bodice contains two "possibly" and one "apparently".

The NGA's notes for Dancer Adjusting the Shoulder Strap of Her Bodice contain "proposes",  "reportedly" and "allegedly" as well as "confirmation" by "personal communication".

The earliest publication listed in the Bibliography dates to 1990: John Rewald's Degas' Complete Sculpture: Catalogue Raisonné.

The creation date is not clear. 

The NGA title states: "Dancer Adjusting the Shoulder Strap of Her Bodice, original wax 1880s/1890s, cast 1920/1949". The first date, for an "original wax" spans twenty years. The second date, for a cast, spans thirty years". Degas himself died in 1917, but is the only artist listed.

Edgar Degas

Dancer Adjusting the Shoulder Strap of Her Bodice, original wax 1880s/1890s, cast 1920/1949

The medium is given as "copper alloy".

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Questions for students of art history and provenance research:

1) If one removes the statements which are qualified by words that convey uncertainty or unreliability, what is known for certain about this artwork?

2) Which contemporaneous sources are cited to support statements?

3) Which later sources are cited? What is the distance in years between the events described and the source?

4) Who created the sculpture?

5) When did this particular artwork first appear?

6) Why no photo?

7) What other sources may be relevant to understanding the history of this artwork?

For a glimpse at some of the discussion concerning Degas sculptures, see:

"A Controversy over Degas", ArtNews, 2010 

"Scholars absent from State Hermitage Museum conference with controversial Degas bronzes on the agenda", The Art Newspaper, 2012

"Edgar Degas (1834–1917): Bronze Sculpture", The Metropolitan Museum, 2004

(For more information on analyzing provenance texts for speculative language, see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AXwjBoC0Kp4)

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 Below is the record for the Degas as published by the NGA:

https://www.nga.gov/collection/art-object-page.66462.html#provenance

Provenance

(Adrien-Aurélien Hébrard [1865-1937], Paris). Possibly sold or consigned to (Max Kaganovitch, Paris), by 1949; sold 4 September 1951 through (Frankart S.A., Switzerland) to (Alex Reid & Lefèvre, London).[1] Possibly sold to (Curt Valentin, New York);[2] sold 1955 to (M. Knoedler & Co., New York); sold 1956 to (Paul Rosenberg & Co., New York).[3] sold, apparently after 1958,[4] to Dr. Hugo Tesoriere; (sale, Sotheby's, London, 24-25 November 1964, 1st day, no. 58); purchased by (Hector Brame, Paris) for Paul Mellon [1907-1999], Upperville, Virginia;[5] gift 1985 to NGA.

[1] Sara Campbell, "A Catalogue of Degas' Bronzes," Apollo (August 1995): 42, cat. 64; Joseph S. Czestochowski and Anne Pingeot, Degas Sculptures. Catalogue Raisonné of the Bronzes, Memphis, 2002: 21, 120, 247. Kaganovitch allegedly bought and showed a nearly full set of "O" casts in his Paris gallery's Degas exhibition of 1949 before selling the set to Reid and Lefevre and then organizing with them an exhibition at the Kunstmuseum in Bern in 1951-1952. A bronze of this subject indeed appears in general installation photographs of the 1949 Paris exhibition (Dossier Kaganovitch, Documentation du Musée d'Orsay, Paris), although Kaganovitch reportedly also owned the "F" cast as well, albeit later, in 1952. For the discussion of the sale to Reid and Lefevre Gallery before the Bern exhibition, see "Introduction to the Collection," in Czestochowski and Pingeot 2002.

[2] Campbell 1995: 42, cat. 64. Czestochowski and Pingeot 2002: 247, proposes that the D cast is involved instead. 

[3] Campbell 1995: 42; Czestochowski and Pingeot 2002: 247.

[4] A cast belonging to Paul Rosenberg was exhibited at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in 1958.

[5] Confirmation by the late Philippe Brame, personal communication to Anne Halpern, 13 January 2003; see also Mellon collection records in NGA curatorial files.

Associated Names

Brame, Hector
Buchholz Gallery, New York
Galerie Max Kaganovitch
Knoedler & Company, M.
Mellon, Paul
Reid & Lefèvre, Ltd, Alex
Rosenberg & Co., Paul P.
Sotheby's, London
Tesoriere, Hugo, Dr.