id: 128874 accession number: 1951.483 share license status: CC0 url: https://clevelandart.org/art/1951.483 updated: 2022-09-22 09:45:02.553000 Victoria Dubourg, c. 1866. Edgar Degas (French, 1834–1917). Graphite; sheet: 30.9 x 21.9 cm (12 3/16 x 8 5/8 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Mr. and Mrs. Lewis B. Williams Collection 1951.483 title: Victoria Dubourg title in original language: series: series in original language: creation date: c. 1866 creation date earliest: 1861 creation date latest: 1871 current location: creditline: Mr. and Mrs. Lewis B. Williams Collection copyright: --- culture: France, 19th century technique: graphite department: Drawings collection: DR - French type: Drawing find spot: catalogue raisonne: --- CREATORS * Edgar Degas (French, 1834–1917) - artist Son of a Parisian banker, Edgar Degas enrolled in law school in 1853 following his father's wishes. But he had already shown an interest in art and had also registered to copy at the Louvre. In 1855 he entered the École des Beaux-Arts and became a student of Louis Lamothe (1822-1869), a former pupil of Ingres (q.v.). One year later Degas made the traditional journey to Italy, remaining there for three years. He visited family members in Naples and Florence and attended life classes at the Villa Medici in Rome. A visit to Normandy in 1861 may have introduced him to the racetrack. In Paris he continued to study at the Louvre, where he met Manet (q.v.) in 1862. Apart from his continuous interest in portraiture and history painting, Degas began to pay attention to subjects of modern life. Between 1865 and 1870, he exhibited at the Salon. At the time of the Franco-Prussian War, he enlisted in the artillery, but because of his poor eyesight he served (with Manet) in the infantry. After the war he traveled first to London and, in 1872-73, visited his uncle and brothers who had a cotton business in New Orleans. Degas participated in the first impressionist exhibition of 1874. He continued to exhibit with these artists until 1886 but never completely considered himself a member of the group, preferring to call himself a realist or naturalist. While many of the impressionists painted en plein air, Degas worked with models in his studio and, later in his career, from his imagination. In addition to painting, he experimented often with monotypes, engraving, pastels, sculpture, and photography. He traveled extensively-London, Naples, Spain, Morocco, and Switzerland-but continued to draw his subject matter from modern-day Paris. Other recurring themes would be the female nude and the ballet dancer. After the impressionist exhibition of 1886, Degas no longer participated in group shows. Instead he sold his works to private dealers such as Durand-Ruel and Ambroise Vollard. In the 1890s he began his own art collection, which, besides many works on paper, included paintings by such artists as Ingres, Cézanne (q.v.), Delacroix (q.v.), Gauguin (q.v.), and van Gogh (q.v.). His own art at the time became characterized by broader strokes of paint, charcoal, and pastel and the use of more vibrant colors, partly because of problems with his vision. His failing eyesight and poor health caused him to abandon his pursuit of art during the last years of his life. --- measurements: Sheet: 30.9 x 21.9 cm (12 3/16 x 8 5/8 in.) state of the work: edition of the work: support materials: description: off-white wove paper watermarks: inscriptions: inscription: verso, upper right, in blue crayon: Ph 1756 [underlined] translation: remark: --- CURRENT EXHIBITIONS title: The Nineteenth Century: One Hundred Twenty-Five Master Drawings opening date: 1962-03-26T05:00:00 The Nineteenth Century: One Hundred Twenty-Five Master Drawings. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY (March 26-April 23, 1962). title: Nineteenth Century: 125 Master Drawings opening date: 1962-03-26T05:00:00 Nineteenth Century: 125 Master Drawings. Frederick R. Weisman Art Museum, Minneapolis, MN (organizer) (March 26-April 23, 1962); Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY (May 10-June 30, 1962). title: The Nineteenth Century: One Hundred Twenty-Five Master Drawings opening date: 1962-03-26T05:00:00 The Nineteenth Century: One Hundred Twenty-Five Master Drawings. Frederick R. Weisman Art Museum, Minneapolis, MN (organizer) (May 15-July 1, 1962). title: Drawings opening date: 1963-01-11T05:00:00 Drawings. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (January 11-September 10, 1963). title: Juxtapositions opening date: 1965-09-11T04:00:00 Juxtapositions. The Cleveland Museum of Art (September 11-October 10, 1965). title: The Impressionist Aesthetic opening date: 1982-08-10T04:00:00 The Impressionist Aesthetic. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 10-October 31, 1982). title: National Schools of Style opening date: 1983-06-14T04:00:00 National Schools of Style. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 14-September 18, 1983). title: The Private Degas opening date: 1987-01-20T05:00:00 The Private Degas. Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (January 20-February 28, 1987); Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge CB2 1RB (March 17-May 3, 1987). title: Directions in Drawing II: The Human Figure opening date: 1991-11-05T05:00:00 Directions in Drawing II: The Human Figure. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 5, 1991-January 12, 1992). title: French Drawings from the Collection opening date: 1994-12-13T05:00:00 French Drawings from the Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 13, 1994-March 12, 1995). title: Monet to Dalí: Modern Masters from the Cleveland Museum of Art opening date: 2006-05-27T00:00:00 Monet to Dalí: Modern Masters from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Seoul Art Center, South Korea (December 22, 2006-March 28, 2007); Seoul Olympic Museum of Art, South Korea (April 7-May 20, 2007). --- LEGACY EXHIBITIONS * The Private Degas. Whitworth Art Gallery, University of Manchester (January 17 - February 28, 1987); Fitzwilliam Museum, University of Cambridge (March 14 - May 3, 1987).

Works by Edgar Degas. Cleveland Museum of Art (February 5 - March 9, 1947).

French Drawings and Water Colors, Supplement to The Painting of France Since the Revolution. M. H. De Young Memorial Museum, San Francisco (Summer 1941). --- PROVENANCE Estate of Edgar Degas [1834-1917], Paris date: c. 1866-1918 footnotes: citations: (Galerie Georges Petit, second Degas sale, Paris, December 11-13, 1918, no. 238, 2nd part) date: 1918 footnotes: citations: Mme. Alice Weiller [1869-1943], Paris, by descent to Paul-Louis Weiller, Geneva date: after 1918-by 1941 footnotes: citations: Paul-Louis Weiller [1883-1993], Geneva date: by 1941-before 1951 footnotes: citations: Mr. and Mrs. Lewis B. Williams, Cleveland, given to the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH date: by 1947-1951 footnotes: citations: Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH date: 1951- footnotes: citations: --- fun fact: Around the time this drawing was made, its subject, Victoria Dubourg, became engaged to the artist Henri Fantin-Latour, also a friend of Degas. digital description: This drawing is one of several studies that Edgar Degas created for a painted portrait of the artist Victoria Dubourg, now in the collection of the Toledo Museum of Art. Here, Degas concentrated on the facial expression of Dubourg, known for her still-lifes of flowers. Attempting to precisely render Dubourg's direct gaze, Degas drew her eyes in greater detail, even adding an additional sketch along the sheet's upper margin. wall description: --- RELATED WORKS --- CITATIONS Catalogue des tableaux, pastels, et dessins par Edgar Degas et provenant de son atelier...2e vente. Paris: Georges Petit, 1918. page number: Mentioned and reproduced: p. 39, no. 238 (2nd part of lot, as Buste de femme) url: Lemoisne, P. A. Degas et son oeuvre. Paris: Brame and De Hauke, 1946). page number: Mentioned: p. 68, under no. 137 url: French Drawings and Water Colors, Supplement to The Painting of France Since the French Revolution. Exh. Cat. San Francisco: M. H. de Young Memorial Museum, 1941. page number: Mentioned: p. 6, no. 217 url: Francis, Henry Sayles. Works by Edgar Degas. Exh. Cat. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1947. page number: Mentioned: p. 19, no. 57; Reproduced: pl. XLVIII url: Coe, Nancy. "The History of the Collecting of European Paintings and Drawings in the City of Cleveland." MA Thesis. Oberlin College, 1955. page number: Mentioned: vol. II, p. 258, no. 9 url: Francis, Henry S. "Drawings by Degas." Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 44, no. 10 (December 1957): 212-217. page number: Mentioned: p. 215; Reproduced: p. 214 url: https://www.jstor.org/stable/25142248 Eitner, Lorenz. The Nineteenth Century: One Hundred Twenty-Five Master Drawings. Exh. Cat. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota, 1962. page number: Mentioned: no. 27; Reproduced: pl. 33 url: The Toledo Museum of Art: European Paintings. Toledo: Toledo Museum of Art, 1976. page number: Mentioned: p. 52 url: Thomson, Richard. The Private Degas. Exh. Cat. New York: Thames and Hudson, 1987. page number: Mentioned: p. 17, 139, no. 30; Reproduced: p. 21 url: --- IMAGES web: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1951.483/1951.483_web.jpg print: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1951.483/1951.483_print.jpg full: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1951.483/1951.483_full.tif