The upper left corner of this painting bears a dedication by Degas "to his dear friends." The double portrait depicts Paul Lafond (left), future curator of the art museum at Pau, in southwestern France, and Alphonse Cherfils (right), an art collector and defender of the Impressionists. Through the influence of these friends, Degas's works were selected for the annual exhibitions of the Société des Amis des Arts (Society of Friends of the Arts), and his painting, A Cotton Office (1873), was the first by the artist to be purchased by a museum. Since the painting held by the two men is probably by Degas, this intimate image commemorates both personal and business relationships.
Date
between circa 1878 and circa 1880
date QS:P571,+1850-00-00T00:00:00Z/7,P1319,+1878-00-00T00:00:00Z/9,P1326,+1880-00-00T00:00:00Z/9,P1480,Q5727902
Medium
Oil on wood panel
Dimensions
Framed: 42.5 x 50 x 6 cm (16 3/4 x 19 11/16 x 2 3/8 in.); Unframed: 27 x 34 cm (10 5/8 x 13 3/8 in.)
This is a faithful photographic reproduction of an original two-dimensional work of art. The work of art itself is in the public domain for the following reason:
Public domainPublic domainfalsefalse
The author died in 1917, so this work is in the public domain in its country of origin and other countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 100 years or fewer.
The person who associated a work with this deed has dedicated the work to the public domain by waiving all of their rights to the work worldwide under copyright law, including all related and neighboring rights, to the extent allowed by law. You can copy, modify, distribute and perform the work, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission.
http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/deed.enCC0Creative Commons Zero, Public Domain Dedicationfalsefalse
In many jurisdictions, faithful reproductions of two-dimensional public domain works of art are not copyrightable. The Wikimedia Foundation's position is that these works are not copyrightable in the United States (see Commons:Reuse of PD-Art photographs). In these jurisdictions, this work is actually in the public domain and the requirements of the digital reproduction's license are not compulsory.