"portrait Of Giulia Bellelli Circa 1858" By Edgar Degas, Print From Paul Valéry's Book 1937

This delightful portrait from 1858, taken from the book by Paul Valéry, who intended a fragmentary and poetic evocation of the painter and his art, whose pages run along the walls, at the end of the exhibition at the Musée d'Orsay. It was finally in 1937, almost 40 years after their meeting, and after Degas's death, that Valéry published "Degas Danse Dessin" with the art dealer and publisher Ambroise Vollard. The luxury edition, produced in 305 numbered copies, which alternates text and engravings based on Degas's drawings, is the result of eight years of preparation. The dancer Ida Rubinstein and Pablo Picasso were among the first buyers and the Musée d'Orsay has just acquired a copy.... This beautiful, carefully crafted reproduction from the book represents Giulia Bellelli, which Edgar Degas (1834-1917) executed in 1858 (Work not currently on display) inventory number RF11689 from the Department of Graphic Arts at the Louvre Museum. Paris. Sale of the estate of the René de Gas Collection 1927, acquired at public auction by the State for the Louvre Museum