SOFA
72 EMILE DE SPECHT Born Saint-Denis 1843
Barrias. He exhibited at the Salon des Artistes Français from 1865 to 1897, showing mainly views of Paris, genre scenes and portraits. He also exhibited one work at the Salon des Refusés in 1873 and at the Salon des Indépendants in 1888, and produced a number of prints.
A Presumed Portrait of Edgar Degas Black chalk, with stumping Signed and dated Le 22 Novembre 1878 / Émile de Specht / Paris at the lower right 305 x 232 mm., 12 x 9 1/8 in.
Dated 1878, this would appear to be a portrait of the artist Edgar Degas (1834-1917) at the age of forty-four. A similar portrait drawing in black chalk by Émile de Specht, depicting Dr. Paul Gachet and dated the 19th of December 1895, is now lost, but is known from an engraving by Gachet himself, under the name Paul van Ryssel.
Émile de Specht entered the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris in 1861, and was a pupil of Léon Cogniet and Félix-Joseph 83