Description
Year of creation: 1856–1857
Original size: 46.2 cm x 64.5 cm
Painting style: Impressionism
Original technique: Oil on canvas
Located: National Gallery of Art, Washington (inv. 1963.10.123)
Achille De Gas in the Uniform of a Cadet – Edgar Degas
A young man stands before us from the hips up, his body slightly turned and his head twisted back towards the viewer. He wears a dark naval cadet’s uniform and a flat cap with a lacquered peak, a gold band and a small anchor at the front. Our oil painting on canvas keeps exactly that reserved, almost official bearing.
The uniform down to the last button
A gold cord with tassels falls over his right shoulder and drops in loops across his chest. Jacket and waistcoat fasten with dense rows of brass buttons, at the neck are a white collar and a dark tie, and around the waist a light belt with a gold oval buckle. Every piece of the kit is painted as precisely as it is worn by somebody proud of it.
A red wall and nothing else
The background is a smooth brick-red wall; at the left runs the edge of wooden panelling, at the lower right a low horizontal division. There is no object to say where we are. The almost black uniform stands as a dark shape against the warm red, and the only bright accents are the face, the collar and the gold.
The early Degas
The paint is laid thinly and evenly, without an emphasised stroke – this is Degas before Impressionism, still learning from the old masters. One hand rests on a grey upholstered arm, the other hangs loosely at his side. Other portraits from the same family circle are carried by Edmondo and Thérèse Morbilli and Lorenzo Pagans and Auguste De Gas.
Our version
Our version is a hand-painted oil painting on canvas. Every canvas is painted individually, in the size and frame you choose. The painter works from the original with brush and oils, so the strokes and the layering stay visible – the part a print cannot reproduce.
