Achille De Gas in the Uniform of a Cadet

Achille De Gas, Edgar's younger brother, is shown here in his naval cadet's uniform at approximately age sixteen or seventeen — placing the portrait around 1858, when Degas was 24 and had recently returned from his Italian studies. The formal military costume gives the portrait a precision of setting that Degas would later abandon for the informality of his genre subjects, but the direct, unidealized observation of his brother's face already shows the psychological acuity of his mature portraiture. The image is a record of family affection as much as artistic practice.

Degas renders the naval uniform with the careful attention to costume detail appropriate to a formal portrait, the dark blue jacket with its bright brasswork precisely observed. The face, however, is treated with greater spontaneity — the wide eyes and slightly open mouth giving the young man an unguarded, unposed quality more characteristic of a sketch than an official portrait.