Edgar Degas (1834-1917) At the Louvre, Musée des Antiques: the Etruscan Gallery (Mary Cassatt at the Louvre). Circa 1879-1880 (according to Reed and Shapiro; 1876 according to Delteil). Etching, drypoint, soft varnish and aquatint. 235 x 270. Delteil 30 (vi/vi); Reed-Shapiro 51 (ix/ix). Very fine proof on thin laid japanese paper, from the final state, with the final vertical drypoint cuts in the book. Pale red workshop stamp at right foot (Lugt 657). Some very slight foxing. Full margins [268 x 352]. Provenance: Former Gérard-Henri Gilbert (1879-1943) collection, philatelic expert. This subject is from the artist's posthumous sale, Paris, November 22, 1918, lot 50 (experts Delteil, Bernheim-Jeune, Durand-Ruel, Vollard): "Au Louvre: Musée des Antiques - Cinquante-neuf épreuves dont 44 sur papier du Japon / Ce numéro sera divisé." The two figures are American painter Mary Cassatt (standing back) and her sister Lydia, seated, holding a museum guide. "The printmaking activity undertaken with Pissarro was supported by the project to launch a magazine, Le Jour et la Nuit, which mobilized Degas at the close of the fourth Impressionist exhibition in May 1879. He envisioned the creation of a periodical of original prints at a time when "modern" etchings lacked distribution channels. (...) The idea was to give publicity to the experiments carried out with Pissarro, and to involve his American friend Mary Cassatt, whom he had met in 1877, even though she was new to printmaking. Spurred on by Degas, she produced her first etchings, with astonishing virtuosity. Félix Bracquemond plays an active role in the (...) The plate Degas intended for the magazine, Mary Cassatt au Louvre. Musée des Antiques, depicts Mary and her sister Lydia in front of the sarcophagus of the Cerveteri couple in a room of Etruscan antiquities in the Musée du Louvre. Engraved in nine states and printed by Alfred Salmon, it combines soft varnish, aquatint, etching and drypoint. Its counterpart, Mary Cassatt at the Louvre, was worked in twenty successive states." The magazine project never saw the light of day. It was abruptly suspended even though it had been announced in the press, perhaps for financial reasons or because (according to Mary Cassatt's mother) Degas had compromised publication because his plate was not ready in time. (Valérie Sueur-Hermel, "Degas maître de l'estampe impressionniste", in Degas en noir et blanc, exhibition cat., Paris, BnF, 2023, p. 91-101).