Picasso vs. Degas

by Christopher Benfey

Slate
June 16, 2010

Two giants of Modern painting face off at the Clark Art Institute.

Pablo Picasso, The Blue Room (The Tub), 1901. The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C.

Edgar Degas, In a Café (L'Absinthe), 1875-76. Musée d'Orsay, Paris.

Pablo Picasso, Portrait of Sebastià Junyer i Vidal, 1903. Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

(Left) Edgar Degas, Woman Ironing, 1876-87. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
(Right) Pablo Picasso, Woman Ironing, 1904. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York.

Edgar Degas, Little Dancer Aged Fourteen, 1879-81. Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Mass.

Pablo Picasso, Standing Nude, 1907. Museo del Novecento, Milan.

Pablo Picasso, Degas Among the Prostitutes. First Appearance of Degas, 1971

 

Edgar Degas, Combing the Hair (La Coiffure), circa 1896. The National Gallery, London.

Pablo Picasso, Nude Wringing Her Hair, 1952. Private Collection.