Artwork
Two Men
Two Men is an oil painting by Edgar Degas. It dates from 1865 and is held in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
About this work
Technique & Style
The handling is consistent with mid-1860s academic practice, with smoothly blended passages and careful modeling of form.
The work is an oil painting on panel executed in 1865 by Edgar Degas. The support is a wooden panel measuring 27 cm in height and 20.6 cm in width. The handling is consistent with mid-1860s academic practice, with smoothly blended passages and careful modeling of form.
The composition focuses on two male figures in a restrained, closely observed interior setting, reflecting Degas’s early engagement with genre subjects and figural arrangement.
History & Provenance
The work now titled Two Men was painted by Edgar Degas in 1865, as indicated by the artist’s date on the canvas and corroborated by the Metropolitan Museum’s records.
It entered the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1992 as the bequest of Mary Stillman Harkness, whose collection included the painting at the time of her death. The museum accession number 1992.380 identifies the work within its holdings, where it remains located.
Edgar Degas's painting Two Men, created in 1865, is held in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. The work was acquired by the museum with the accession number 1992.380. Executed in oil on panel, the piece measures 27 cm in height and 20.6 cm in width. The provided sources do not contain specific records regarding the painting's exhibition history or prior provenance.
Overview
Edgar Degas's Two Men, executed in 1865, is an oil painting that captures two figures in a dimly lit interior. The composition features a full-length portrait of two men standing against a dark, indistinct background that emphasizes their silhouettes. The figure on the left, dressed in a black coat, turns his head to the right, while the man on the right, clad in a dark suit, faces forward.
Degas employs a restrained palette dominated by blacks and deep browns, utilizing loose brushwork to define the forms without excessive detail. Created during the artist's early career, shortly after his return from Italy, the work reflects his ongoing engagement with portraiture and figure studies before his full immersion in scenes of modern Parisian life. The painting demonstrates Degas's interest in capturing the psychological presence of his subjects through posture and gaze rather than elaborate setting.
It stands as a significant example of his mid-1860s exploration of the human figure, bridging his academic training with the emerging modernist sensibility that would later define his reputation.
Subject & Meaning
The composition shows one man in a black coat turning his gaze toward the other, who is dressed in a dark suit and looks straight ahead. Their solemn expressions and the muted palette convey a restrained, contemplative atmosphere, suggesting a moment of private interaction or shared contemplation.
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Artist & collection
Artist
Born Hilaire-Germain-Edgar De Gas on 19 July 1834 in Paris, Edgar Degas came from an affluent banking family with aristocratic roots and spent his childhood among the cultivated circles of the French capital.
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