ART TRACKERSConnecting fine art to people
Platform OverviewPlatform SecurityPricingTechnology OverviewTags & PlaquesWhat is UAINLegal & Compliance
GovernmentTribal NationsArtistsUniversity & CollegesServices
InstitutionsExploreMuseum Collections
Artists
Why Art TrackersAboutContactBlogDocumentationCareers
Request demo
Platform OverviewPlatform SecurityPricingTechnology OverviewTags & PlaquesWhat is UAINLegal & Compliance
GovernmentTribal NationsArtistsUniversity & CollegesServices
InstitutionsExploreMuseum Collections
Artists
Why Art TrackersAboutContactBlogDocumentationCareers
Request demo
Art Trackers logo
ART TRACKERS
Connecting fine art to people

Connecting fine art to people. Preserving cultural legacy through technology.

Platform

FeaturesHow It WorksSecurityIntegrations

Government

For Cities & CountiesComplianceResourcesCase Studies

Resources

DocumentationHelp CenterBlog

Company

About UsCareersNewsContact Us

© 2026 Art Trackers LLC. All rights reserved.

Privacy PolicyTerms of ServiceAccessibility
    Museum collections / Art Institute of Chicago
    Young Spartan Girls Challenging Boys
    Edgar Degas. Young Spartan Girls Challenging Boys, c. 1860. The Art Institute of Chicago. Public domain (CC0).

    Public collection via the Art Institute of Chicago

    AT-00000641

    Young Spartan Girls Challenging Boys

    by Edgar Degas

    View at the Art Institute of Chicago

    Inscriptions

    Inscribed lower right: Degas

    Provenance

    Artist’s studio until his death in 1917 [according to Lafond 1919]; sold at second sale of the “Atelier Degas,” Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, December 11-13, 1918, no. 7, to the artist’s brother, René de Gas [according to letter from Charles Durand-Ruel to Richard Brettell, dated May 10, 1983; copy in curatorial file]; René de Gas (died 1921); his estate, until 1927 [according to letter cited above]; sold, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, November 10, 1927, no. 76, to Durand-Ruel, Paris [according to annotated sale catalogue, Getty Research Institute Library, Los Angeles; copy in curatorial file]; Durand-Ruel, Paris, from 1927 to 1950; sold to Jean d’Alayer de Costemore d’Arc, Paris, 1950 [according to letter from Charles Durand-Ruel cited above. Costemore d’Arc was married to Marie-Louise Durand-Ruel]; Jean d’Alayer de Costemore d’Arc, Paris, until at least 1952 [lent by him to Amsterdam 1952]. Sam Salz, New York, by 1960; sold to the Art Institute, 1961.

    Exhibition history

    Paris, André J. Seligmann, Réhabilitation du Sujet, November 17-December 9, 1934, cat. no. 83. Bern, Kunstmuseum, Degas, November 25, 1951-January 13, 1952, cat. no. 2. Amsterdam, Stedelijk Museum, Edgar Degas, 1952, cat. no. 5. Paris, Galerie de la Gazette des Beaux-Arts, Degas dans les collections françaises, June 9-26, 1955, cat. no. 9. Paris, Galerie Durand-Ruel, Edgar Degas: 1834-1917, June 9-October 1, 1960, cat. no. 2. Tokyo, Seibu Museum of Art, Exposition Degas, September 23, 1976-November 3, 1976; Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art, November 7-December 10, 1976; Centre Culturel de Fukuoka, December 18, 1976-January 16, 1977, cat. no. 4. Chicago, Art Institute of Chicago, Degas in the Art Institute of Chicago, July 19-September 23, 1984, cat. no. 9. Leningrad [St. Petersburg], Hermitage Museum, Ot Delakrua do Matissa: shedevry frantsuzskoĭ zhivopici XIX-nachala XX veka, iz Muieia Metropoliten v Niu-Ĭorke i Khudozhestvennogo Instituta v Chikago [From Delacroix to Matisse: Great Paintings From the XIX century to the Beginning of the XXth century From Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the Art Institute of Chicago], March 15-May 19, 1988, cat. 16; Moscow, Pushkin Museum, June 10-July 30, 1988. Paris, Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais, Impressionnisme: Les origines, 1859–1869, April 19–August 8, 1994, cat. 51; New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Origins of Impressionism, September 27, 1994–January 8, 1995. Madrid, Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Forma: El ideal clásico en el arte moderno, October 9, 2001-January 13, 2002, cat. no. 13. London, National Gallery, Art in the Making: Degas, November 10, 2004-January 30, 2005, no cat. no. São Paulo, Museu de Arte de São Paulo, Degas: o universo de um artista, May 17–August 20, 2006, no cat. no. Fort Worth, Tex., Kimbell Museum of Art, The Impressionists: Master Paintings from the Art Institute of Chicago, June 29–November 2, 2008, cat. no. 37. Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, Degas and The Nude, October 9, 2011-February 5, 2012, no cat. no. Karlsruhe, Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe, Edgar Degas: Classicism and Experimentation, November 8, 2014-February 1, 2015, cat. no. 52. The Art Institute of Chicago, Degas: At the Track, On the Stage, July 1, 2015-February 26, 2016, no cat. Melbourne, National Gallery of Victoria, Australia, Degas: A New Vision, June 24-September 18, 2016; Houston, Museum of Fine Arts Houston, October 14, 2016-January 16, 2017, no cat. no. Zurich, Kunsthaus, Praised and Ridiculed. French Painting 1820-1880, November 10, 2017–January 28, 2018, cat. 35.

    Publications

    Paul Lafond, Degas, vol. 2 (Paris: H. Floury, 1919), pp. 2, 4 (ill.). P[aul]-A[ndré] Lemoisne, Degas et son œuvre, vol. 2 (Paris: Paul Brame et C. M. de Hauke, 1946), pp. 34-5, no. 71 (ill.). John Maxon, “Report of the Director of Fine Arts,” Annual Report, 1960-1961 (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 1961), pp. 10-12. Phoebe Pool, “The History Pictures of Edgar Degas and their background,” Apollo 80, 32 (1964), p. 308, fig. 6. John Maxon, “Some Recent Acquisitions,” Apollo 84, 55 (1966), pp. 216, 220, fig. 8. William M. Ittman, Jr., “A Drawing by Edgar Degas for the Petites Filles Spartiates Provoquant des Garçons,” The Register of the Museum of Art: The University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas 3, 7 (1966), pp. 38-49, fig. b. Devin Burnell, “Degas and His ‘Young Spartans Exercising,’” Museum Studies 4, (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 1969), pp. 49-65, fig. 1. Martin Davies, National Gallery Catalogues. French School: Early 19th century, Impressionists, Post-Impressionists, etc. (London: National Gallery, 1970), pp. 48-9. Franco Russoli, L’opera completa di Degas (Milan: Rizzoli Editore, 1970), p. 90, fig. 89. Roy McMullen, Degas: His Life, Times, and Work (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1984), p. 103-6. Maurice Guillaud, Degas: form and space (Paris; New York: Centre culturel du Marais, [1984]), p. 19. Carol Salus, “Degas’ Young Spartans Exercising,” Art Bulletin 67 (1985), p. 503, n. 14. Richard R. Brettell, French Salon Artists, 1800-1900 (Art Institute of Chicago/New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1987), pp. 38 (ill.), 39, 118. Richard Thomson, The Private Degas (London: Herbert Press, 1987), pp. 33-39, fig. 36. Norma Broude, “Edgar Degas and French Feminism, ca. 1880: ‘The Young Spartans,’ the Brothel Monotypes, and the Bathers Revisited,” Art Bulletin 70 (1988), pp. 640-659, fig. 3. Jean Sutherland Boggs, Degas, exh. cat. (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art; Ottawa: National Gallery of Canada, 1988), pp. 98-9, under no. 40, fig. 50. Quentin Bell, Bad Art (London: Chatto and Windus, 1989), pp. vii, 107, 111, no. 6. Carol Armstrong, Odd Man Out: Readings of the Work and Reputation of Edgar Degas (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991), pp. 119-120, fig. 63. Wendy Lesser, His Other Half: Men Looking at Women through Art (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1991), pp. 60-1. Jean Sutherland Boggs, Degas (Art Institute of Chicago/New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1996), p. 16, pl. 4. Richard Kendall, Degas beyond Impressionism, exh. cat. (London: National Gallery Publications, 1996), pp. 106-7, fig. 109. Richard Kendall, Degas and the Little Dancer (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1998), pp. 77, 93-4, fig. 65. Alexander Sturgis, Pocket Guides: Faces (London: National Gallery Publications, 1998), pp. 30-32, fig. 36. Whitney Davis, “’Homosexualism,’ Gay and Lesbian Studies, and Queer Theory in Art History,” in The Subjects of Art History: Historical Objects in Contemporary Perspectives (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998), pp. 131-133, fig. 19. Gloria Groom and Douglas Druick with the assistance of Dorota Chudzicka and Jill Shaw, The Age of Impressionism at the Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago; New Haven: Yale University Press, 2008), pp. 86-87, cat. no. 37 (ill.). Anne Roquebert, “The Classical Body: Degas’s Beginnings,” in Degas and The Nude, exh. cat. ed. George T.M. Shackelford and Xavier Rey (Boston: Museum of Fine Arts Publications, 2011), pp. 30, 33, fig. 35. Alexander Eiling, “Klassik und Experiment im Werk von Edgar Degas,” in Degas: Klassik und Experiment (Munich: Hirmer [2014]), p. 25, fig. 17. Henri Loyrette, Degas A New Vision, exh. cat. (Melbourn: National Gallery of Victoria, 2016), 32-33. Zürcher Kunstgesellschaft, ed., Praised and ridiculed: French painting 1820-1880, exh. cat. (Munich: Hirmer; Zürich: Kunsthaus Zürich, 2017), 82–83, 239 cat. 35.

    Open-access museum data

    This record comes from the open-access collection data that the Art Institute of Chicago publishes for unrestricted use (Creative Commons Zero). Art Trackers shows a selection of the museum's published fields. The Art Institute of Chicago is not an Art Trackers client and has not reviewed or endorsed this page; the museum's own website is the authoritative record.

    • View this work at the Art Institute of Chicago
    • The Art Institute of Chicago: open-access terms

    Data retrieved from the Art Institute of Chicago on October 8, 2026. The museum may have updated its record since.

    Quick Overview

    Artist
    Edgar Degas (French, 1834–1917)
    Date
    c. 1860
    Medium
    Oil on canvas
    Dimensions
    97.4 × 140 cm (38 5/16 × 55 1/8 in.); Framed: 130.2 × 162.6 × 11.8 cm (51 1/4 × 64 × 4 5/8 in.)
    Type
    Painting
    Classification
    painting
    Style
    Impressionism
    Place
    France
    Department
    Painting and Sculpture of Europe
    Credit line
    Charles H. and Mary F. S. Worcester Collection
    Accession no.
    1961.334

    More by Edgar Degas in museum collections

    • Frieze of Dancers

      Edgar Degas

      c. 1895 · Painting

      Public collection via the Cleveland Museum of Art

      AT-00000242
    • Dancers

      Edgar Degas

      c. 1896 · Drawing

      Public collection via the Cleveland Museum of Art

      AT-00000317
    • Before the Race

      Edgar Degas

      c. 1887–89 · Drawing

      Public collection via the Cleveland Museum of Art

      AT-00000324
    • Sheet of Studies and Sketches

      Edgar Degas

      1858 · Drawing

      Public collection via the Cleveland Museum of Art

      AT-00000332

    Open-access museum record · AT-00000641

    Powered by Art Trackers