All his pretty ones

This August, the Harvard University Art Museums will present “Degas at Harvard,” an exhibition examining Harvard University’s distinguished holdings by Edgar Degas – one of the most important collections of the artist’s work in the United States. The exhibition will draw together more than 60 works by Degas from the collection of the Fogg Art Museum, together with promised gifts to the Fogg, as well as works from the Houghton Library at Harvard and Harvard’s Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection in Washington, D.C. Organized by the Fogg Art Museum, the exhibition encompasses drawings, paintings, prints, sculpture, and photographs, and will be on view at Harvard’s Arthur M. Sackler Museum from Aug. 1 to Nov. 27.

In 1911, the Fogg was the first museum in the world to mount an exhibition of works by Degas and was the only one to do so during the artist’s lifetime. “Degas at Harvard” brings together Degas works in various Harvard collections, from very early works created in his student days to masterworks made at the height of his career. The exhibition explores the range and depth of Degas’ artistic innovation, and Harvard’s pivotal role in fostering understanding and scholarship of his works through the commitment of its curators, collectors, and the generations of scholars who have worked with the collection at the Fogg.