[Self-Portrait with Christine and Yvonne Lerolle]

The intimate portrait, Self-Portrait with Christine and Yvonne Lerolle, was captured by Edgar Degas between 1895 and 1896. This remarkable piece is classified as a photograph, specifically a gelatin silver print, demonstrating Degas's late-career engagement with the medium. Though known primarily as a painter and sculptor associated with the Impressionist movement, Degas used photography extensively for personal documentation and technical experimentation with light and shadow during the fin-de-siècle period.

The composition features the artist himself, captured in a self-portrait among two young women, Christine and Yvonne Lerolle. The Lerolle sisters were the daughters of Henri Lerolle, a close friend and fellow artist, placing the photograph firmly within Degas’s private, domestic circle. The use of the gelatin silver print technique allowed for precise rendering of detail and tonal gradation, emphasizing the internal world of the subjects. This particular study reflects the artist's ongoing fascination with composition and the dynamic relationship between men and women in quiet, informal settings.

Unlike his public canvases, many of Degas’s photographs, including this one, served as private studies, offering a unique perspective into the artist’s life and his approach to rendering figures. The resulting collection of prints provides essential context for understanding the breadth of the master’s work beyond his famous paintings of dancers and laundresses. This significant example of Degas's photographic output, Self-Portrait with Christine and Yvonne Lerolle, is held in the permanent collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art (The Met).