Degas Danse Dessin

Valéry, Paul. Degas Danse Dessin. Paris: Ambroise Vollard, 1936. Edition of 325 copies, this is #75. 10" x 13 ½".

Original wrappers, protective sleeve backed in vellum and lettered Paul Valery Degas. With 26 aquatint-etchings in color, tone or black engraved on copper by Maurice Potin, after original pastel or chalk drawings by Degas. Plus 25 photogravures in text printed in sepia after Degas by Aimé Jourde, plus two page Tables des Hors-texte with small wood engravings cut by Georges Auberts as a pictorial index to the etchings.

Protected in a fine half morocco case by Asprey of half-tan morocco, 12" X 15", with rounded spine and raised bands, decorated and lettered in gilt. Cloth sides Suede lining. Fine inside and out. $7,500.00 Degas Danse Dessin pictures ballet dancers in costume and in the nude, subject matter for which Degas was famous. Published by Ambroise Vollard in a livre d'artiste that brings forth Degas' original drawings and monotypes in fidelity.* Vollard writes "I had to find an artist capable of fathoming the sensitiveness of [Degas'] drawing, the subtlety of his tone. I turned to the painter-graver Maurice Potin who accomplished wonders. He spared neither time nor trouble."

Potin often "had to engrave as many as three different copper plates to capture the rich, feathery effect of Degas's monotypes. Six years were required for the project. "In his superbly engraved plates of aquatint-etching Potin has preserved the rich black and pastel colors of the original."(Johnson p27) Paul Valery contributes the text. Valery has written extensively about the dance, most notably his 1925 work L'Ame et la Danse with the frequently quoted line "Poetry is to prose as dancing is to walking."

*The drawings came from a portfolio entitled Scènes de Maisons Closes that Degas compiled in the late 19th century. Vollard published two other editions de luxe based on the portfolio, also with engravings by Potin: Guy de Maupassant La Maison Tellier, 1935 (Johnson #177) and Pierre Louÿs Mimes des courtisanes. De Lucien, 1935 (Johnson #178).

Refs: Carteret. IV: 385; Johnson, Ambroise Vollard, Éditeur #179; Sothebys. The Book as Art. London 21 November 1995. lot 444; Vente Lucien Vendel (1981) #54; Vollard, Ambroise. Recollections of a Picture Dealer. Translated by Violet M. Macdonald. Boston: Little Brown, 1936; Wheelock. Modern painters and sculptors as Illustrator, #47