Buy Art Prints Nowfrom Amazon
* As an Amazon Associate, and partner with Google Adsense and Ezoic, I earn from qualifying purchases.
by Tom Gurney
Tom Gurney BSc (Hons) is an art history expert with over 20 years experience
Published on June 19, 2020 / Updated on September 28, 2026
Email: tomgurney1@gmail.com / Phone: +44 7429 011000
Degas Semiramis Building A City: Introduction
A woman in pale clothing stands at the edge of a terrace, looking toward water and a city under construction. Companions gather behind her; a dark horse and the front of a chariot occupy the right. Edgar Degas made this small painted sketch for his larger Sémiramis construisant Babylone (Semiramis Building Babylon) around 1861. The sketch is in the Musée d’Orsay as RF 2007 2. It measures 26.2 × 40.5 cm and is oil on paper mounted on canvas. The inherited page title “Semiramis Building a City” is one English name for this exact image. [1][2] [6]
Two Orsay paintings and several studies share the Semiramis subject. This page follows the compact sketch with the pale sky, scaffold, terrace group and dark horse. The museum's monumental canvas, RF 2207, is a separate work on a very different scale. Keeping their accession numbers together with their images lets the story of Degas's early history painting remain clear. [1][3]
The work at a glance
- ArtistEdgar Degas (1834–1917)
- Museum titleSémiramis construisant Babylone
- English route titleSemiramis Building a City
- DateAround 1861
- MediumOil on paper mounted on canvas; painted sketch
- Size26.2 × 40.5 cm
- CollectionMusée d’Orsay, Paris
- AccessionRF 2007 2; Degas catalogue MS1266
Contents
- Introduction
- At a Glance
- A city viewed from above
- A painted study and a monumental canvas
- Semiramis as a subject
- The sketch's own collection history
- Looking again
A city viewed from above
The left half opens toward the water and distant buildings. A narrow scaffold rises behind the terrace wall, giving the title's building project a visible sign. Boats break the water below. The pale sky and open distance contrast with the compact gathering of figures and horse near the viewer. Degas divides the picture between a place being made and people looking out across it. [1]
The figure in the pale dress occupies a prominent position beside the parapet. The orange-clad person beside her adds a strong colour note, while a kneeling figure and flowers draw attention to the ground. Behind them, attendants form a close group whose individual roles are not fully explained by the small image. The catalogue and museum title identify Semiramis as the legendary ruler, but the painting does not label every companion. We can describe their positions without inventing speech or an exact ceremony. [1][2]
The horse changes the picture's balance. Its dark body and decorated head stand against the pale sky and terrace stone; part of a chariot appears at the far right. Together they form a heavy counterweight to the more open water on the left. Degas stops the vehicle at the edge, so our eye has to imagine its continuation beyond the small painted surface. The crop is part of the composition rather than evidence that the study was cut down later. [1][2]
The sketch's size makes these relationships easy to grasp at once. There is no extended narrative of workers laying stones. Instead, a ruler and companions survey a city imagined across the river. The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Musée d’Orsay describe Degas's broader Semiramis project as an early attempt at history painting. Here, its large subject is compressed into a modest oil study. [1][3][4]
A painted study and a monumental canvas
The Musée d’Orsay calls RF 2007 2 an esquisse, a painted sketch. Its support is paper attached to canvas. The museum's larger painting RF 2207 is oil on canvas and measures about 151.5 × 258 cm. It belonged to Degas's studio and reached the national collection after the 1918 studio sale. The small sketch and large canvas can be compared as stages in one artistic project, but they are distinct physical objects with different later histories. [1][3]
The larger canvas expands the setting and distributes the figures across a much broader surface. The smaller sketch states the main groups with less room for detail: open landscape at left, figures around Semiramis, horse and vehicle at right. This is why the exact sketch is valuable. It shows an arrangement that Degas could test before committing to the larger format. It should not be presented as a reduced photograph of the finished canvas. [1][3]
Other studies survive, including drawings of individual figures and animals. The Musée d’Orsay's discussion of RF 2207 describes Degas studying figures separately, sometimes nude before he worked out their drapery, and looking to Assyrian reliefs and Italian painting for possible models. Those are the museum's interpretations of the wider project. They do not prove that every proposed influence is visible in this one sketch. [3]
The Metropolitan Museum of Art notes that Degas considered adding red ibises to the large Semiramis composition while working on a related Young Woman with Ibis. That is an example of an idea explored during the project. It does not mean birds appear in RF 2007 2, and no invented bird should be added to a description of this composition. [4]
Watch: Edgar Degas
Explore his paintings, drawings and sculpture in three short videos.
Degas, The Dance Class
Look closely at Degas’s off-duty dancers and his unusual view into the rehearsal room.
Watch on YouTubeSemiramis as a subject
Semiramis is a legendary queen associated with Assyria and Babylon. In this picture she stands above the imagined city, looking toward construction beside the Euphrates. The setting gives Degas a historical subject with architecture, attendants, water, costume and a horse to bring together. The painting represents a legend, not documentary evidence of Babylon's actual building. [2][3]
Degas worked on this subject early in his career, before the dance and racecourse pictures that now dominate his public reputation. The Musée d’Orsay describes the larger Semiramis painting as an ambitious history painting begun around 1860. Such a project gave a young artist a way to apply the figure studies and older art he had encountered during his training. RF 2007 2 makes that ambition visible on a small scale. [1][3]
The subject also allowed him to set a group against a broad landscape. The central figures are near enough for costume and gesture to matter, but the title asks us to look past them to a whole city. This movement between foreground and distance creates the sketch's quiet drama. The horse and chariot imply movement, while Semiramis and her companions appear to pause and look. [1]
The sketch's own collection history
Orsay records RF 2007 2 in the collection of Jules Strauss, who acquired it during Degas's lifetime. It was sold at Sotheby's London on 6 February 2007, lot 443, under the title Sémiramis construisant une ville, and the museum acquired it that year. The auction record describes the same oil on paper laid down on canvas and rounds its size to 26 × 41 cm. These closely agreeing records reinforce the identification of the composition discussed here. [1][2]
The catalogue raisonné assigns the sketch MS1266 and cites Lemoisne I-84. It also describes the related monumental canvas separately as MS1268. Another painting named Sémiramis construisant une ville, catalogue MS1292, is privately held and has different dimensions. Matching the picture to RF 2007 2 matters more than relying on the English words “building a city,” which can refer to more than one related Degas work. [1][3][5]
The Orsay record currently places this sketch in Room 13. Gallery locations can change. A visitor should check the museum's current display listing, while a reader comparing images should start with the accession and the recognisable composition: scaffold and water at left, pale-dressed woman and attendants at centre, dark horse and chariot at right. [1]
Looking again
Start with the white dress and follow the parapet toward the water. Then return across the orange garment and kneeling figure to the horse. The broad sky gives the imagined city room to extend beyond the small group. The sketch keeps a large history-painting idea readable through a few carefully placed masses of colour and line. [1]
This is a painted study, not the monumental canvas. Its small size, paper support and 2007 acquisition distinguish it from Orsay RF 2207. Seen with those facts in place, it offers a direct look at Degas arranging a legendary city and its ruler before developing the theme on a much larger scale. [1][3]
Artworks directory
A selected index of documented works, combining owner records with entries sampled across Michel Schulman’s digital catalogue raisonné. It is not a complete catalogue. View the full catalogue
Discussion
Share what you notice in Degas’s semiramis building a city.
Reader Insights
How do the open water and crowded terrace balance each other?
Where does the horse anchor the compact composition?
Which details distinguish this sketch from the large Orsay canvas?
Join the Conversation
Share your reading of these works below.
References
- Musée d’Orsay, Sémiramis construisant Babylone, RF 2007 2, exact sketch, materials, measurements, display and provenance. View source
- Sotheby's London, Sémiramis construisant une ville, lot 443, 6 February 2007, auction image, title, dimensions and previous ownership. View source
- Musée d’Orsay, Sémiramis construisant Babylone, RF 2207, separate large canvas and project context. View source
- Metropolitan Museum of Art, Young Woman with Ibis, 2008.277, related exploration of the large Semiramis composition. View source
- Michel Schulman, Degas digital catalogue, Sémiramis construisant Babylone, MS1266, sketch identity and concordance; MS1292, separate private work. View source · View source
- Edgar Degas, Semiramis Building Babylon (painted sketch), circa 1861, oil on paper mounted on canvas. Musée d’Orsay, Paris, RF 2007 2. Collection record. View source
