Degas En Noir Et Blanc : Dessins, Estampes, Photographies

Exhibition at the Bibliothèque nationale, Paris, 31 May - 3 September 2023

Edgar Degas showed a constant interest in black and white, which he expressed through printmaking and photography as well as drawing and painting.

Degas's first attempts at aquafortising date back to the 1850s; twenty years later, thanks to some highly inventive technical research, he produced the plates that are among the masterpieces of Impressionist prints. The taste for the single print led Degas to the monotype, which he considered a "printed drawing" and in which he became an unequalled master. Women at their toilette were the recurrent subject of his later lithographs, while photographic experimentation, his latest passion, which he took up in 1895, enabled him to rediscover the "atmosphere of lamps" and the chiaroscuro of his prints.

This exhibition catalogue brings together one hundred and sixty works (prints, drawings, photographs, as well as a painting and a sculpture) from the collections of the BnF and from French and foreign loans, offering an unprecedented approach to Degas's work. The book demonstrates the insatiable technical curiosity of the artist, who created a body of work in black and white that was unrivalled in its time.