Degas did not accept portrait commissions as a rule, restricting his practice in this genre to members of his family and intimate acquaintances. This rapid, vigorous study for the portrait of an industrialist’s wife (today in the Art Institute of Chicago) was an important—and ill-fated—exception. The artist’s correspondence with his sitter indicates how quickly he soured on the project. “Let us leave this portrait alone, I beg of you,” he wrote, “I was so surprised by your letter suggesting that I reduce it to a boa and a hat that I shall not answer you... Must I tell you that I regret having started something in my own manner only to find myself transforming it completely into yours?”
Details
- Artist Name: Edgar Degas (French, 1834-1917)
- Title: Portrait of Madame Dietz-Monnin
- Date: 1879
- Medium: Pastel on brown paper
- Dimensions: 18-1/2 x 12-1/4 in. (47 x 31.1 cm)
- Credit Line: Norton Simon Art Foundation, Gift of Mr. Norton Simon
- Accession Number: M.1976.07.P
- Copyright: © Norton Simon Art Foundation
Object Information
Lerolle (father-in-law of Alexis Rouart, who was Henri Rouart’s brother);
Mme. Helen (Eugène) Marin, née Rouart, Paris, in 1924, by inheritance (?) to;
Henri Marin, Paris, in 1937.
Edith Dunn (Mrs. Alfred Chester) Beatty, London, by 1946, by inheritance to;
Sir Alfred Chester Beatty (1875-1968), London and Dublin, sold 16 March 1955 to;
[Paul Rosenberg & Co., New York, stock no. 5597, sold 30 January 1957 to];
Norton Simon, gift 1976 to;
Norton Simon Art Foundation.
Degas: Portraitiste, Sculpteur
- Paris, Orangerie des Tuileries, 1931 to
Exposition Degas au profit de la Ligue Franco-Anglo-Américaine contre Le Cancer: Peintures, Pastels, et Dessins, Sculptures, Eaux-fortes, Lithographies et Monotypes
- Paris, Galerie Georges Petit, 1924-04-12 to 1924-05-02
Degas
- Paris, Musee de l'Orangerie, de Tuileries, 1937-03 to 1937-04
Edgar Hilaire Germain Degas
- Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1958-03-03 to 1958-04-06
Special Exhibition for the College Art Association (Mr. and Mrs. Norton Simon Collection)
- Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1965-01-18 to 1965-04-16
By Day & By Night: Paris in the Belle Époque
- Norton Simon Museum, 2019-10-04 to 2020-03-02
Gaze: Portraiture After Ingres
- Norton Simon Museum, 2009-10-30 to 2010-04-05
- Russoli, Franco; and Fiorella Minervino, L'opera completa di Degas, no. 564 p. 113
- Lemoisne, Paul-André, Degas et son oeuvre, no. 536
- Alexandre, Arsène, Les Arts, p. 16
- Lafond, Paul, Degas, p. 25
- Hertz, Henri, Degas, pl. II p. 4
- Fosca, F., Degas,
- Hourticq, L., Art et Décoration, 1912, p. 108
- Catalogue of A Century of Progress Exhibition of Paintings and Sculpture, 1933, under no. 290
- Charles, Et., La Renaissance, 1937,
- Guerin, M., Degas Letters, 1947, pp. 60-61
- Rich, Daniel C., Edgar-Hilaire-Germain Degas, 1951, p. 14
- Boggs, Jean Sutherland, Portraits by Degas, 1962, no. 104 pp. 52-53, 57, 59, 116
- Brettel, Richard; and Suzanne McCullagh, Degas in the Art Institute of Chicago, 1984, fig. 47-1 p. 106
- McMullen, Roy, Degas: His Life, Times, and Work, 1984, p. 304
- Sutton, Denys, Edgar Degas: Life and Work, 1986, p. 130
- Kennedy, Brian P., Irish Arts Review, 1987, p. 51
- Masterpieces from the Norton Simon Museum, 1989, p. 154
- Campbell, Sara et al., Degas in the Norton Simon Museum, 2009, Fig. 17 p. 158
- Campbell, Sara, Collector Without Walls: Norton Simon and His Hunt for the Best, 2010, cat. 45 p. 249
- Michel Schulman, Degas Catalogue Raisonné Online, 2021, MS-783
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