“I think that Harvard’s drawing collection is so strong that I wanted to give something that would be of that quality, and there isn’t really another drawing of this character in the exhibition,” said Pulitzer.

Though many consider Degas an early—and influential—impressionist, his work reflects classical training, and his experimentation with a variety of media defies easy classification.

“One of the extraordinary things about Degas was that he was a draftsman like none other, a great master of the pastel, really an innovator in printmaking, and a pioneering photographer as well,” said Wolohojian. “Our collection has truly central works in all those media so that we are able to really assess the full range of the artists’ work.”

Thomsen, who will deliver a lecture on Degas in October, praised the breadth of the exhibit.

“The Harvard collection is very varied. It’s got paintings, pastels, photographs,” he said. “They’re certainly the best holdings of any university art gallery in the world.”

The museum amassed most of its Degas holdings under the tutelage of Associate Museum Director Paul J. Sachs, class of 1900, the eldest son of Samuel and Louisa Goldman Sachs. Sachs donated 22 pieces to the University, many of which will be on display at the Sackler.

“Sachs was the main promoter and was a great collector himself and persuaded other people to collect Degas,” said Cohn. “He had many students, so it wasn’t just that Harvard became a holder but also spread the missionary zeal.”

Sachs’ primary interest lay in Degas’ sketches, and indeed many of the works on display in the Sackler were rough drawings that later developed into paintings.

One of Sachs’ donations, “After the Bath, Woman Drying Herself,” has been held in a laboratory for many years, for fear that the brittle quality of the paper and the backing would react aversely outside of a controlled environment. Until Wednesday afternoon the drawing was soaking in a bath designed to humidify the paper.

PAINTINGS BY THE NUMBERS

Curators and museum planners say they are expecting the exhibition to attract over 40,000 people to the Sackler.

“‘Degas at Harvard’ is such a powerful title,” said Deputy Director of the Art Museums Richard Benefield. “There’s Degas, and then I think people associate quality with Harvard. It’s a double whammy, so to speak.”

The curators of the exhibit began planning the show roughly a year ago, prompted by the availability of space and the retirement of people familiar with Harvard’s Degas holdings, including Cohn and Jean Sutherland Boggs.

Both Cohn and Boggs, who studied under Sachs in 1944 and went on to become the first female director of the National Gallery of Canada, contributed articles to the exhibit’s catalog.

The exhibition is timed to coincide with two of the busiest months for the museums, August and October. To contain the large crowds—3,000 visitors per week are expected—the Sackler plans to cap the number of people in the exhibit at any one time at 100.

Although Harvard University Art Museums have an annual operating budget of approximately $21 million, Harvard owns or has been promised all the works the exhibit and therefore absorbed only a fraction of that cost—under $100,000, Benefield said.

—Staff writer Natalie I. Sherman can be reached at nsherman@fas.harvard.edu.