Daphne S. Barbour – författare

A technical examination of artists’ workshops and studios across history and media, told through the collections of the National Gallery of Art  Volume 6 of the National Gallery of Art’s biennial conservation research journal Facture explores the themes of workshops and studios in different cultural contexts and various media. Topics examined include serialization in the Della Robbia workshop, the creative practice of early twentieth-century French bronze founders, the restoration histories of French marbles from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the complex interplay between an artist’s technique and the strict competition guidelines of the Prix de Rome, the production of a manuscript by Joris Hoefnagel, and the collaborative nature of an early draft of Freydal ordered by the Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I. The six peer-reviewed essays, richly illustrated with detailed photography, generate valuable insights for conservators, art historians, and scientific researchers.  Distributed for the National Gallery of Art, Washington

As an artist, Edgar Degas (1834-1917) defies easy description. Allied with the French impressionists through his commitment to portraying modern life, he also took an independent course, preferring line over color and the visible brushstroke, and working in a studio instead of out-of-doors. He is perhaps best known as a painter, but his most widely known work is a sculpture, Little Dancer Aged Fourteen. Executed in wax, near life-sized, dressed in a ballerina's tutu, with real ballet slippers and real hair, the sculpture caused a sensation when it was exhibited in 1881. It is the only sculpture Degas ever showed publicly, though more than one hundred--of dancers, horses, and bathers--were found in his studio after he died, all dusty, some fallen apart. For almost forty years after his death, these works were known only through the bronzes his heirs had cast from the originals.Then, in 1955, the waxes themselves appeared on the art market. Thanks to the discernment and generosity of Paul Mellon, the majority are now preserved at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, most on permanent display. This groundbreaking volume honors this extraordinary gift by linking art and science.It brings together the insights of a distinguished art historian of nineteenth-century painting and sculpture and the specialized knowledge of National Gallery conservators and scientists who have published pioneering technical studies. Including essays on Degas' life and work, his sculptural technique and materials, and the story of the sculptures after his death, it features art-historical and technical discussions of every work in the collection as well as indispensable concordances and bibliography. The richly illustrated text is intended for both art lover and specialist. Was Degas the sculptor technically inept or unusually inventive? How do we understand his sculpture in light of his paintings, prints, and photographs? These questions and many others are explored with originality and depth, adding immeasurably to our understanding of the artistic avant-garde in the late nineteenth century and to our appreciation of this controversial artist.