Angel Blowing a Trumpet (1857–59): Art, History and Details

Angel Blowing a Trumpet (1857–59) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Edgar Degas (French, 1834–1917).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

The figure in this drawing closely resembles a number of trumpeting angels in drawings that Edgar Degas made between 1856 and 1858 in preparation for an ambitious but ultimately unrealized history painting on the subject of Saint John the Evangelist accompanied by an angel. Rather than referring to any single passage in the Book of Revelation, Degas distilled an image from passages describing seven trumpeting angels who unleash destruction on earth with their blasts, the voice of Christ that addresses John in loud tones "like a trumpet," and individual angels who lead and instruct the Evangelist.

Object facts

• Title: Angel Blowing a Trumpet
• Date: 1857–59
• Creator attribution: Edgar Degas (French, 1834–1917)
• Culture: France, 19th century
• Type: Drawing
• Technique: black chalk
• Dimensions: Sheet: 44.1 x 54 cm (17 3/8 x 21 1/4 in.)
• Collection: DR - French
• Department: Drawings
• Accession number: 1976.130

A detail from the museum

Related studies suggest that the subject is a male model; Degas added breasts almost as an afterthought.

Collection credit

Gift of The Print Club of Cleveland

Further reading listed by the museum

• Letter from Philippe Brame to Louise S. Richards, September 2, 1976. The Cleveland Museum of Art Archives.
• The Print Club of Cleveland, 1919-1969. Cleveland: The Print Club of Cleveland, 1969.
• Lee, Sherman E. "The Year in Review for 1976." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 64, no. 2 (1977): 39-78.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.