Currently not on view
The Engraver Joseph Tourny,
1857
Edgar Degas, 1834–1917; born and died Paris, France
x1960-6
Etched in Rome when Degas was twenty-four years old, this work depicts the artist’s friend Joseph Tourny in the soft light of his studio window. A watercolorist and printmaker who specialized in copies after the Old Masters, Tourny twice won the Prix de Rome for his engravings and regularly exhibited in the Paris Salon after 1857. It is generally accepted that Tourny taught Degas the art of etching in Rome. The print bears the small image of the head of a monk, seen in profile in the margin of the plate. Known as a remarque in nineteenth-century printmaking, the motif probably indicates the quiet nature of the sitter and the Roman setting.
Information
Title
The Engraver Joseph Tourny
Dates
1857
Maker
Medium
Etching with touches of black chalk
Dimensions
plate: 23 x 14.4 cm. (9 1/16 x 5 11/16 in.)
Credit Line
Gift of James H. Lockhart, Jr., Class of 1935
Object Number
x1960-6
Place Made
Europe, Italy, Rome
Inscription
Inscribed and dated in graphite, lower right: Rome, 1858
Marks/Labels/Seals
Collector James Henry Lockhart's stamp, verso lower right: (Lugt 4387)
Stamps, verso lower right: Atelier Degas
Reference Numbers
Reed and Shapiro 5; Adhémar and Cachin 8 A; Delteil 4; Degas Atelier sale 8
Materials
Techniques
Subject
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Loys Delteil, "Volume 9," Le peintre-graveur illustré (Paris: Chez l'Auteur, 1906-1930).
, no. 4 - An Exhibition of 100 Prints and Drawings from the Collection of James H. Lockhart, Jr. (Pittsburgh: Carnegie Institute, 1939)., p. 151
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"Recent acquisitions", Record of the Art Museum, Princeton University 20, no. 1 (1961): p. 24-27.
, p. 24 - R. A. Koch, "Master I. A. of Zwolle and Others: A Handsome Gift of Rare Prints" The Record XX, no. 2 (1961): 30-42., fig. 1, p. 31 (illus.)
- Degas: The Complete Etchings, Lithographs and Monotypes (London: Thames & Hudson, 1974), p. 260
