Hilaire-Germain-Edgar Degas, 'Carlo Pellegrini', about 1876-7

It looks almost as though this figure is part of a larger composition. The jovial man appears to be talking with someone outside the picture. He has a cigarette in his hand and is wearing a smart grey suit. He holds his bowler hat behind his back. But nothing is missing. This painting was always intended to represent a single figure. It is a lighthearted depiction of the Victorian caricaturist Carlo Pellegrini.

Pellegrini was born in Capua in Southern Italy in 1839. As a young man he was something of a dandy. He was a popular figure in Naples, and had a talent for sketching cartoons of local society figures. By 1864 he had settled in London. By the date of this portrait, he was famous and his caricatures were published regularly in Vanity Fair under the pseudonym of Ape (Italian for bee).

He specialised in gentle satires of politicians and celebrities. He depicted them with good humour, exaggerating their features and postures. He often presented them in profile or turning away from the viewer. Typically, there was little or no background, so they seemed to be floating in space.

In this portrait, Degas has imitated Pellegrini’s style. He frames him with a narrow, upright format, often favoured by the Italian. But Degas was not tempted by a blank, empty setting. Instead, simple touches hint that Pellegrini is out strolling in a London park. There is a lawn in the background and the trunks of some small trees. There appears to be the outline of another figure wearing a coat and a pair of trousers.

The painting is not intended as a studied ‘formal’ portrait. It was sketched with oil paint onto a piece of paper cut down from a larger sheet. The paint surface and brushwork show that it was done quickly, without much preliminary drawing. Degas made slight adjustments as he went along: look at the outlines of Pellegrini’s sleeve, for example, or where his wrist emerges from his shirt cuff.

The portrait seems to have been part of an exchange between friends. Around 1876–7, Pellegrini had painted a half-length caricature of Degas which he dedicated ‘à vous/Pellegrini’ (to you/Pellegrini). Degas’s response, as we see here, is inscribed ‘à lui/ Degas’ (to him/Degas). Both sketches must have been made when the French artist visited London in the 1870s. He may have been introduced to Pellegrini by the American painter James McNeill Whistler, who was an admirer, or perhaps by another artist friend they had in common, James Tissot, whose sketches were also published in Vanity Fair. The exchange of paintings suggests that Degas and Pelligrini struck up a rapport.