Degas at Harvard

This handsomely illustrated book presents more than seventy paintings, drawings, prints, photographs, and sculptures by Edgar Degas (1834–1917) in Harvard University’s collections—one of the most important holdings of the artist’s work in the United States. In 1911, the Fogg Art Museum was the first museum to mount a one-man exhibition on Degas and was the only museum to do so during the artist’s lifetime. This book examines the history of Degas’s reception in the U.S., and in particular the pivotal role that Harvard played.

Marjorie Benedict Cohn offers a historical account of the formation of the prized collection of Degas’s works at the Fogg. Jean Sutherland Boggs provides an engaging personal recollection of her initial encounter in 1944 with Degas and his champion at the Fogg, associate director Paul J. Sachs, who inspired not only Boggs’s later work on Degas but also that of many other art historians, museum directors, and curators.

This catalogue is published in conjunction with a 2005 exhibition organized by the Harvard University Art Museums. Curator Cohn offers a historical account of the unusually deep collection of Degas's works at the Fogg (it's one of the most important in the US); and art historian Boggs writes of her experiences as a student (beginning in 1944) with Paul J. Sachs, Degas's champion at the Fogg and the man who inspired her own and many others' scholarship. The catalogue contains 53 color and 41 b&w plates showcasing the museum's paintings, drawings, prints, photographs, and sculptures. Annotation ©2006 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Marjorie B. Cohn recently retired as Carl A. Weyerhaeuser Curator of Prints at Harvard University Art Museums. She is the author of Lois Orswell, David Smith, and Modern Art, published by Yale University Press. Jean Sutherland Boggs, now retired, was formerly director of the National Gallery of Canada, professor of fine arts at Harvard University, and director of the Philadelphia Museum of Art.