Edgar Degas Artwork Valuation: Understand Your Piece's Market Value

The ArtValue engine analyses auction results (Drouot, Christie's, Sotheby's, Artcurial), gallery prices and online marketplaces to deliver a personalised estimate.

What drives the value of a work by Edgar Degas

Oils and pastels on paper — Unique paintings and above all the pastels of dancers, bathers, milliners and racecourse scenes stand at the very top of the market, particularly the dense, layered pastels of the 1880s–1890s. Because Degas frequently reworked, mounted and extended his sheets, condition and the integrity of the support are scrutinised as closely as the subject.

Drawings and monotypes — Charcoal, pencil and essence studies of dancers and nudes, and the monotypes (mostly unique or existing as a first and a weaker second pull), form a substantial and actively traded segment. Squared-up preparatory sheets linked to known compositions are valued more highly than routine academic studies from his early years.

Posthumous bronzes — The wax models found in the studio at his death were cast in bronze only after his death, in several authorised series, each cast lettered and marked with the founder's name; the market treats these as posthumous editions, not as works cast by Degas. Provenance to an early, documented casting series and legibility of the foundry marks are decisive, and later or unauthorised recasts are treated very cautiously.

Original etchings and lithographs — Degas made a modest number of prints, often in tiny numbers of impressions and in several states, which are catalogued and collected by specialists. Value depends on the state, the quality of the impression and whether it is a lifetime pull or a posthumous printing from surviving plates.

Reproductive prints and posters — Photomechanical reproductions, heliogravures, later 'after Degas' lithographs and exhibition posters circulate in very large numbers and are decorative items. They carry only modest value regardless of framing, plate signatures or certificates.

Degas usually signed in the lower corner in a fairly compact hand, 'Degas' or 'E. Degas', in pastel, chalk or paint according to the medium, and many finished works were dedicated to friends or inscribed; a great many sheets left in the studio were never signed at all. At the posthumous studio sales, unsigned works were marked with a red studio stamp reading 'Degas' applied to the front, and a second stamp or an atelier mark is often found on the reverse or on the mount, so an unsigned work bearing such a stamp is not automatically a lesser piece. The posthumous bronzes bear a cast letter, the stamped signature 'Degas' and the founder's mark, and the standard reference for the paintings and pastels remains the early twentieth-century catalogue raisonné compiled by Paul-André Lemoisne, with separate catalogues for the prints and monotypes.

• Colour photomechanical reproductions of famous dancer and bather compositions, sometimes varnished or laid on canvas to imitate pastel or oil, betray themselves under magnification by a regular dot or rosette screen instead of granular pigment strokes.
• Twentieth-century 'after Degas' lithographs and museum posters often carry a signature printed within the image and a printed edition-looking inscription, which is not a hand signature and should not be read as one.
• Later and unauthorised bronze recasts, frequently softer in detail with blurred or absent founder marks and mismatched patina, are commonly offered as if they were from the authorised posthumous series.
• Drawings in Degas's manner by pupils, followers and outright forgers are numerous, and red stamps imitating the studio mark occur, so the stamp alone proves nothing without documented provenance.

• Ballet subjects, bathers and racecourse scenes are the most sought after, while early portraits, Italian copies and history subjects generally attract narrower demand.
• Among pastels, richly worked, large and fully resolved sheets from the mature decades rank far above slight tracings or repetitive late studies.
• Documented provenance back to the studio sales, an early dealer or a known collection, and inclusion in the standard catalogues, weigh heavily, as Degas is among the most forged artists of his period.
• Condition problems specific to the medium depress value sharply: light-faded or smudged pastel, flattened surface from past glazing pressure, acidic or joined supports, foxing and trimming on drawings, and repatination or corrosion on bronzes.

• Photograph the signature or stamp area in raking light and close up, so that pigment texture can be distinguished from printed dots.
• Photograph the entire reverse, including the stretcher, mount, backing board, any collection or exhibition labels, inventory numbers and customs or dealer marks.
• For bronzes, record the cast letter, the stamped signature and the foundry mark, and for prints note any edition or state notation, plate marks, watermarks and the paper's thickness and edges.

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