Two Men ca. 1865-69 Edgar Degas French Degas often depicted individuals off-guard in their own environment in order to reveal characteristic gestures and poses that convey a sense of the sitter's personality or identity. The setting of this informal scene may be an artist's studio. The man on the right is possibly the painter Émile Lévy, who was a student at the French Academy in Rome when Degas met him in the late 1850s. No name has been proposed for the man on the left.. Two Men 436168