The Actress Ellen Andrée

The Actress Ellen Andrée by Edgar Degas, executed in 1879, is a remarkable example of Impressionist-era printmaking, focusing on the dynamic social life of Parisian women. This specific work is a drypoint on laid paper, categorized technically as the second state of three, and noted by the Metropolitan Museum of Art as a unique impression pulled at a specific moment in the plate’s development.

The subject, Ellen Andrée, was a celebrated stage actress and café-concert performer who frequently modeled for Degas and other artists of the period. Degas often centered his attention on modern life, capturing professional women such as dancers and actresses, portraying them both as public figures and in intimate, unscripted moments. In this portrait, Degas employs the drypoint needle to quickly sketch her likeness. The drypoint technique, characterized by the creation of a soft, velvety burr where the metal is pushed up by the needle, gives the lines a richer, less precise appearance than traditional etching, enhancing the psychological immediacy of the actress's gaze.

The designation of the second state of three is crucial for understanding the Impressionist’s meticulous and experimental approach to printmaking, demonstrating his continuous reworking of the image on the copper plate. This level of technical documentation makes the unique impression of The Actress Ellen Andrée highly valuable to scholars studying the evolution of Degas’s artistic methods. This important piece is held in the permanent collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. As a significant nineteenth-century impression, high-resolution images are often made available to the public domain, allowing broader access to the master's influential experiments in prints.