Self-Portrait or Degas Saluant

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Degas Self Portrait Saluting: Introduction

Edgar Degas raises a black top hat toward us. A pair of pale gloves hangs from the same hand, while his other hand rests at his hip. He wears a dark coat and bow tie, and his face meets the viewer's gaze without a broad smile. This is the painting long called Self-Portrait Saluting on this site. The Museu Calouste Gulbenkian in Lisbon identifies it as Self-Portrait or Degas Saluant, inventory 2307. The French word saluant describes the greeting gesture that gives the picture its unusual immediacy. ^{[1] [3]}

The museum dates the oil on canvas to about 1863 and measures it at 92.1 by 69 centimetres. That date is earlier than the 1865–66 sometimes attached to online reproductions. Gulbenkian notes that a photograph of Degas from the first half of the 1860s supports a date around 1863. Its current record is the basis for the object line here. ^[1]

The work at a glance

• ArtistEdgar Degas (1834–1917)
• Museum titleSelf-Portrait or Degas Saluant
• Legacy titleSelf-Portrait Saluting
• DateCirca 1863
• MediumOil on canvas
• Dimensions92.1 × 69 cm
• CollectionMuseu Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisbon, inventory 2307

Contents

1. Introduction
2. At a Glance
3. A portrait built around a gesture
4. A young artist looking back
5. Date, ownership and the image record

A portrait built around a gesture

The hat is more than an accessory. Degas holds it away from his head, making the arc from shoulder to hand one of the picture's clearest movements. The gloves fall between his fingers, their pale colour standing out beside the almost black brim. His other arm bends back into the coat, giving the figure a stable, self-possessed pose. The greeting is momentary; the rest of the body appears firmly arranged for a portrait. ^[1]

Degas looks toward the person standing where we stand. His eyes and lips resist a simple reading. The picture invites contact through the lifted hat, yet the closed dark costume and still expression keep a degree of formality. A viewer can describe that contrast without claiming to know the painter's private mood. Gulbenkian's interpretation sees a modern urban gentleman, a flâneur with a cosmopolitan air. It is a reading of Degas's self-presentation, not a documentary label for a real encounter being depicted. ^[1]

The background divides into two unequal spaces. A warm reddish-brown wall fills the left side behind the hat and upper body. At right, a vertical edge opens onto a cooler blue-grey area and a low suggestion of landscape. The split creates a shallow interior while preventing the figure from being trapped against a single flat colour. The museum connects this arrangement to Renaissance portraiture. It also points to the gloves as a possible tribute to Titian. These are the owner's art-historical comparisons; the visible forms are the vertical division and gloves themselves. ^[1]

Watch: Edgar Degas

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Degas, The Dance Class

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▶01 · PaintingThe Dance ClassSmarthistory▶02 · DrawingDrawing movementThe Met▶03 · SculptureConserving DegasThe Met

A young artist looking back

Degas was not yet thirty when the painting was made, according to the museum's date. He produced a number of self-portraits in the 1850s and 1860s. Gulbenkian notes that only two of those show him at half length, including this canvas. The other example it names is the 1855 Degas au porte fusain in the Musée d'Orsay. The two works should not be confused: the Orsay portrait has a different pose and a charcoal holder, while here the lifted hat and gloves govern the image. ^[1]

The museum's broader essay on Degas also describes his early interest in Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres. That interest helps explain why this youthful self-portrait pays careful attention to controlled pose and portrait tradition. Yet the image is not a straightforward imitation of an older master. The raised hat appears to interrupt the conventional stillness of a formal likeness, as though Degas has allowed a small social action into the frame. That is a visual interpretation of the painting; it does not require a claim that a particular visitor was present. ^[1][2]

Clothing carries much of the effect. The white shirt front and collar break the broad dark mass of the coat. A small highlight marks the fastening low on the torso. The gloves provide another light accent beside the hand. These details direct attention toward the greeting, while the face remains the clearest illuminated area. The broad, dark sleeves and jacket give the pose weight against the warmer wall. ^[1]

Date, ownership and the image record

The owner record lists a Paris purchase on 28 October 1937. Its short provenance field contains “Nice” without a full earlier chain. It would be misleading to turn that spare note into a detailed story of the painting's travels. The secure public information for this page is the museum's present ownership, its inventory number and the reported purchase. ^[1]

The distinction between title and identity matters here. “Self-Portrait Saluting” is a useful English route label, but it is not enough by itself to separate every Degas self-image. The Gulbenkian inventory, the raised hat and gloves, the two-part background and the circa-1863 date together locate this particular canvas. They also correct the date attached to some older reproductions. ^[1]

The hat makes the artist both subject and actor: he is arranged in a carefully painted portrait, but the greeting implies a viewer just outside it. The contrast between that quick social gesture and his steady gaze gives Degas Saluant its enduring tension. ^[1]

References

1. Museu Calouste Gulbenkian, Self-Portrait or Degas Saluant, inventory 2307, owner object line, interpretation and acquisition entry. View source
2. Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, “Edgar Degas”, museum essay on its Degas holdings and the artist's early development. View source
3. Edgar Degas, Self-Portrait or Degas Saluant, circa 1863, oil on canvas. Museu Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisbon, 2307. Collection record. View source

Related DEGAS Paintings

Dance Class

The Ballet from Robert le Diable

Orchestra Musicians

The Millinery Shop

On the Racecourse

Dancers Backstage

A Woman Seated beside a Vase of Flowers

Portrait of James Tissot