Walker Art Gallery acquires La Masseuse (The Masseuse) sculpture by Edgar Degas

La Masseuse (The Masseuse), a sculpture by Edgar Degas has found a permanent home at the Walker Art Gallery as part of the government’s Acceptance In Lieu (AIL) scheme, administered by Arts Council England.

Once owned by the renowned painter, Lucian Freud, the sculpture was one of three by Degas, bequeathed to the nation upon the artist’s death in 2011. La Masseuse was allocated to the Walker following a competitive process with other UK museums and galleries.

La Masseuse, which is Degas’ only two-figure sculpture (his other sculptures are solitary figures), joins the Walker’s impressive collection of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist work, which also features the painting Woman Ironing by Degas.

The sculpture will be displayed alongside Woman Ironing and together they explore Degas’ mastery in conveying movement and exertion. The sculpture’s attention to the physicality and wearisome work of mundane female labour is mirrored in the painting; a theme which ran through much of Degas’ works in the 1890s.

http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/degas