The Degas Plasters: Groundbreaking revelations about Degas sculpture and the Hbrard bronzes

(Hardback)

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Description

In 1955 seventy-four original plasters recording sculptures by Edgar Degas (1834-1917) were moved to the old Valsuani foundry in Paris only to reappear in France in 2004.

These plasters are now being published for the first time, presenting new documentary and physical evidence regarding their dating following an in-depth analysis into the condition of Degas's waxes at the time of his death. Technical and documentary evidence now proves that as many as half of the serialised 'Hebrard' Degas bronzes now held in museum and private collections around the world were in fact cast at the Valsuani foundry in the 1950s and 1960s long after the Hebrard foundry closed in 1935/36. All of the now cleaned 74 Degas plasters are recorded in full colour illustrations. The detailed appendix, which can be accessed via a QR code, provides additional information on the objects and is designed as a scholarly catalogue raisonne.

Author Bio

Gregory Hedberg Ph.D. is a noted authority on European art of the 19th and early 20th centuries. He has published books and articles, presented symposium papers, and organised museum exhibitions on the creative processes of Michelangelo, Millet, Albert Moore, Lger, and Degas. He also organised major museum exhibitions on British Victorian art and German Neue Sachlichkeit painting. After graduating from Princeton University, he received his Ph.D. in art history from the Institute of Fine Arts of New York University.