The Collector of Prints
Edgar Degas·1866
Historical Context
The Collector of Prints, painted around 1866, shows a man absorbed in examining a portfolio of prints in a setting that suggests a dealer's shop or a private collection. Degas was himself a passionate print and drawing collector, and the subject reflects his deep personal investment in the culture of connoisseurship and the material history of art. The figure, hunched over his prints in private absorption, is one of several works from this period in which Degas depicted men (and women) engaged in looking at art — a subject that questions the viewer's own act of looking.
Technical Analysis
Degas frames the collector in a shallow space crowded with mounted prints and portfolios, the shelved and stacked works creating a visual environment that contextualises the collector as surrounded by his obsession. The man's figure, seen in profile, is rendered with the same compact, slightly tense quality Degas gave to all his figures of concentration.
