Collections · Degas
Degas, restored for print
Edgar Degas died in 1917, and his work has been in the public domain worldwide for decades. We restore his paintings and pastels from archival scans and sell them as 300+ finished prints in four formats. Twelve of them, chosen and annotated by the studio, are below.
LumenArtee is our own Etsy storefront — one of the three shops this studio runs. Every sale funds the next restoration.How we restore ·our open ledger
The icons, restored
The Star, c. 1879–81
One dancer takes the stage light; the corps hangs back among the green flats. Her coral bodice against all that green is the hinge of the picture — and the first thing tired copies dull.
Paris Opéra · four formats
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The Dance Class, 1873–76
Jules Perrot leans on his rehearsal stick, painted from life; a watering can waits by the piano to lay the floor dust. The greens of the walls run warm to cool across the room, and they must stay apart.
Paris Opéra · four formats
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In a Café (L'Absinthe), 1875–76
Two friends posed for it — an actress and an etcher — and the pale green glass between them scandalised London. It is a painting of greys; if they clot, the whole café goes to mud.
La Nouvelle Athènes · four formats
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The Bellelli Family, 1858–67
Begun in Florence when Degas was twenty-four, staying with his aunt's family in their mourning year. The original is nearly life-size — the blacks have to stay deep and separate to carry that weight.
Florence · four formats
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The Tub, 1886
From the suite of bathers Degas hung at the final Impressionist exhibition in 1886, seen straight down as if through a keyhole. The copper jug against the zinc grey of the basin is the colour test — both survive here.
Bathers · four formats
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Dancers in Blue, c. 1893–96
Blue laid against blue — dancers fixing their shoulder straps in the wings while orange-lit figures cross behind. Keeping those blues from fusing into one flat mass is the whole job.
Late ballet · four formats
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Deeper into the catalogue
Six more, in the order he made them — the racetrack to the dancers' wings.
Young Spartan Girls Challenging Boys, c. 1860
Degas at about twenty-five, still aiming at the Salon: Spartan girls goading the boys to wrestle, laid in with thin earth colours like a wall painting. He circled back to this subject for the rest of his life.
History paintings · four formats
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At the Races in the Countryside, 1869
The Valpinçon family's carriage parked at the edge of a Normandy racecourse — the race itself is a rumour on the horizon, and the parasol belongs to the baby. It hung in the first Impressionist exhibition of 1874.
Normandy · four formats
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The Orchestra at the Opera, c. 1870
A group portrait smuggled into the pit — his friend Désiré Dihau front and centre at the bassoon, the dancers cropped at the neck above. Black coats on black instruments on black shadow; the restoration lives or dies there.
Paris Opéra · four formats
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A Woman Ironing, 1873
She is almost a silhouette; the window and the hanging linen do the lighting. In dark copies she vanishes altogether — recovered, the blue shirts pinned above her surface first.
Laundresses · four formats
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At the Milliner's, 1882
Mary Cassatt posed for the customer, pinning a bonnet in place while the shop girl waits behind the mirror. Degas dated it plainly in the corner — 1882 — and the apricot wall is his colour, not a warm cast.
Milliners · four formats
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Russian Dancers, c. 1899
Garlands, ribbons and red boots at full tilt — from the folk-dance pastels of his last working decade. Long catalogued under Russia, though the dancers' dress is Ukrainian; the saturation is Degas's own.
Late pastels · four formats
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The rest of the room
The works above are a taste — the catalogue holds 300+ Degas works. Browse it by subject:
Choosing a format
Rolled poster
The cheapest way in — pick it if you already own a frame or want one chosen for the room, not the shipment.
Framed paper
Arrives ready to hang, glass over paper — the classic museum-print look, and the safest default for most rooms.
Stretched canvas
No glass, no glare — texture close to a painting's, and a natural fit for painterly surfaces.
Framed canvas
The canvas texture with a finished edge — the most furniture-like of the four, and the largest sizes live here.
Prices vary by size and format; every listing shows all options in your own currency. Undecided? Ourprint format guidecompares the four honestly.
From the journal
Why is this work free to print in the first place?Degas and the public domain — the full guide →