Public collection via the Cleveland Museum of Art
AT-00011007Angel Blowing a Trumpet
by Edgar Degas
About the Artwork
The figure in this drawing closely resembles a number of trumpeting angels in drawings that Edgar Degas made between 1856 and 1858 in preparation for an ambitious but ultimately unrealized history painting on the subject of Saint John the Evangelist accompanied by an angel. Rather than referring to any single passage in the Book of Revelation, Degas distilled an image from passages describing seven trumpeting angels who unleash destruction on earth with their blasts, the voice of Christ that addresses John in loud tones "like a trumpet," and individual angels who lead and instruct the Evangelist.
Inscriptions
verso, lower right, in graphite: 43 53 / 93 99 [underlined] / 65 75; lower right, in graphite: [illegible] ppl[illegible] [sumi?] [natural?] T A
Provenance
?-1936: Monsieur Romanelli 1936: (Hôtel Drouot, Paris, Dessins, tableaux, estampes par Cézanne, Degas, Forain...tout appartenant à monsieur R., November 21, 1936, no. 8) ?-?: Professor François Lyon, Lyon ?-1976: (Hector Brame-Jean Lorenceau, Paris, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art) 1976-: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
Exhibition history
Year in Review, 1976. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 1-March 6, 1977). Gifts of the Print Club of Cleveland, 1969 - 1979. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 4, 1979-January 27, 1980). Directions in Drawing: 1750-1988. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (April 2-August 4, 1991). French Drawings from the Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 13, 1994-March 12, 1995). Master Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 27-October 17, 2000); The Morgan Library & Museum, New York, NY (May 23-August 19, 2001); Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Houston, TX (October 14, 2001-January 6, 2002). Monet to Dalí: Modern Masters from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 21, 2007-January 13, 2008). Degas and Music. The Hyde Collection, Glens Falls, NY (organizer) (July 12-October 18, 2009). Treasures on Paper from the Collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 9-June 8, 2014).
Data retrieved from the Cleveland Museum of Art on October 8, 2026. The museum may have updated its record since.
Quick Overview
- Artist
- Edgar Degas (French, 1834–1917)
- Date
- 1857–59
- Medium
- black chalk
- Dimensions
- Sheet: 44.1 x 54 cm (17 3/8 x 21 1/4 in.)
- Type
- Drawing
- Classification
- Drawing
- Department
- Drawings
- Credit line
- Gift of The Print Club of Cleveland
- Accession no.
- 1976.130
More by Edgar Degas in museum collections
Open-access museum record · AT-00011007
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