Paintings, Drawings, Sculpture

which Degas then reimagined and manipulated to fit an arched space. When three such fan studies were put on view in 1879 in Paris, most commentators hurried past them, while one anonymous writer proclaimed: “The fans!! . . . oh! the fans! . . . their very curious Japanese fantasy.” In the meantime, perceptive dealers, artists and colleagues, such as Durand-Ruel, Mary Cassatt, and the writer and graphics expert Roger Marx, were quick to purchase them. Degas’s interest in fan painting stopped almost as soon as it began, with the exception of one work done in 1885 to commemorate a friend’s opera. Fewer than 20 fan studies on paper by Degas are known to exist.

Fan Mount: Ballet Girls , 1879 . Watercolor, silver, and gold on silk Metropolitan Museum of Art, 29.100.555