Achille De Gas

Edgar Degas

1868–72

Thinned oil paint over graphite on paper prepared with oil, mounted on canvas

Minneapolis Institute of Art

A man in a top hat and suit stands with his hands on his hips, holding a cane. The background is a textured, warm-toned wash. Edgar Degas often used his family and friends as models. Here, his younger brother Achille poses as a dapper flâneur, a fixture of Parisian society who watches the urban spectacle with an air of boredom and ironic detachment. Achille himself was something of a pretentious do-nothing, frequently running up debts and engaging in scandalous behavior. (He shot and wounded the husband of a former lover in front of the Paris stock exchange.) Degas portrays Achille leaning on an umbrella, twisting his hip and pushing his chest forward to emphasize the studied nonchalance of his half-buttoned coat. The sketch is a study for the male spectat