Youth with Arms Upraised

• Edgar Degas (1834–1917)
• 1859–1860 or 1861–1862
• Black chalk over pencil on fine beige paper
• Robert Lehman Collection, 1975
• (1975.1.609)

These two nude drawings were preparatory studies Edgar Degas made for Young Spartans Exercising. This large-scale history painting, created before Degas turned to Impressionism, was intended to establish his reputation and depicts an episode recorded in ancient Roman literature in which Spartan girls challenge boys to a contest of strength. The varied poses of the figures demonstrate Degas’s ability to depict the nude body. In these two studies, executed with precise and skillful use of line, the boys adjust their stance and shift their weight in anticipation of the contest to come.