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Degas's Father Listening to Lorenzo Pagans Playing the Guitar
Edgar Degas (French, 1834–1917)
about 1869–72
Medium/Technique
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
81.6 x 65.1 cm (32 1/8 x 25 5/8 in.)
Credit Line
Bequest of John T. Spaulding
Accession Number48.533
NOT ON VIEW
CollectionsEurope
ClassificationsPaintings
Lorenzo Pagans, shown here singing and playing the guitar, was a Spanish-born tenor who made a reputation performing songs of his native land in Parisian salons of the 1860s. Degas’s father, who had instilled in his son a love of music, here listens attentively to the singer, his head framed by a sheet of music on the piano.
Provenance1917, passed from the artist at his death to his nephew, Henri Fèvre, Nice and Monte-Carlo; June 22, 1925, anonymous (Fèvre) sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, lot 59, sold for 101,575 fr. to Durand-Ruel, Paris and New York (stock no. 8224); January 8, 1926, sold by Durand-Ruel to John Taylor Spaulding (b. 1870 - d. 1948), Boston; 1948, bequest of John Taylor Spaulding to the MFA. (Accession Date: June 3, 1948)