Youth in an Attitude of Defense
A pencil study of a nude young man seen from behind, turned toward the left with one arm raised in a guarded pose. Soft graphite shading models the back, hips and legs against the pale buff paper, with the head in profile and loose sketch lines around the figure.
Look closer: Red 'Degas' signature in the lower left corner of the sheet.
- Artist
- Edgar Degas
- Date
- 1859–60
- Medium
- Pencil on buff laid paper
- Source
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art
- Size
- 2415 × 3697 px
Public domain · The Metropolitan Museum of Art releases this image under CC0 (latest date 1860).
Rights checked 2026-11-05 · tier A · as stated by the source: CC0 (The Met Open Access, isPublicDomain=true)
Rights checked 2026-11-05 · tier A · as stated by the source: CC0 (The Met Open Access, isPublicDomain=true)
Credit (appreciated, not required for public-domain works): The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Robert Lehman Collection, 1975