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Bronze sculpture of a masseuse massaging the leg of a woman draped across a lounge.

Bronze sculpture of a masseuse assisting a female patient. The masseuse, a woman, wears a long dress with the sleeves rolled up past the elbows and her hair is put up. While massaging or manipulating the leg of her patient, the masseuse holds the woman’s foot with her left hand and the knee with her right. Laying on her left side across the lounge, the female patient holds her right leg up for the masseuse to massage. The patient’s right hand is placed on her right buttock, possibly to ease the pain of the massage.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
2021.188
People
Hilaire-Germain-Edgar Degas, French (Paris, France 1834 - 1917 Paris, France)
Title
The Masseuse
Other Titles
Original Language Title: La masseuse, groupe
Classification
Sculpture
Work Type
sculpture
Date
modeled in the mid-1890s, cast 1919-1937 or later
Culture
French
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/370168

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Bronze
Dimensions
43.8 × 39.4 × 33 cm (17 1/4 × 15 1/2 × 13 in.)
Inscriptions and Marks
  • inscription: side: Degas
  • inscription: bottom: circe perdu / A.A. Hebrard
  • inscription:
    55/O [on side of base]

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
[Julius H. Weitzner, New York and London], sold; to Arthur K. Solomon, Cambridge, December 1957; The Arthur K. and Mariot F. Solomon Trust, bequest; to Harvard Art Museums, 2021

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Arthur K. and Mariot F. Solomon Collection
Accession Year
2021
Object Number
2021.188
Division
European and American Art
Contact
am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu
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Publication History

  • Boston Collects Modern Art, exh. cat., Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University (Waltham, MA, 1964), cat. no. 23
  • Barbara S. Shapiro, Edgar Degas: the Reluctant Impressionist, exh. cat., Boston Museum of Fine Arts (Boston, MA, 1974), cat. no. 55
  • Marjorie B. Cohn and Jean Sutherland Boggs, Degas at Harvard, exh. cat., Harvard University Art Museums/Yale University Press (Cambridge and New Haven, 2005), repr. in color as fig. 28; no. 16, p. 100

Exhibition History

  • Boston Collects Modern Art, Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University, Waltham, 05/24/1964 - 06/14/1964
  • Edgar Degas: the Reluctant Impressionist, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Boston, 06/19/1974 - 09/15/1974
  • Degas at Harvard, Harvard University Art Museums, Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Cambridge, 08/01/2005 - 11/27/2005
  • 32Q: 3620 University Study Gallery, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 01/28/2023 - 05/07/2023

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of European and American Art at am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu