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Dominated by tones of red and fire orange, this nearly square painting shows a seated woman leaning forward in a high-backed chair, holding a round, flat, leaf-shaped fan. She sits to our left facing our right in profile, so the back of the chair is cropped by the left edge of the composition. The coral-red wall behind the woman spans the width of the painting, and the skirt of her long ruby-red dress extends almost to the bottom right corner of the canvas. Her brown hair is pulled up, and her face is in shadow. The flat disk of the fan rests on its edge on her lap, almost at the center of this painting. A few objects cropped by the right edge of the painting break up the suffused red palette, including a black sculpture of a person with arms raised overhead, a footstool, and a triangular white form, perhaps a lamp shade.

Edgar Degas

Madame Camus, 1869/1870

West Building, Main Floor — Gallery 86

Medium

oil on canvas

Dimensions

overall: 72.7 x 92.1 cm (28 5/8 x 36 1/4 in.)

framed: 97.1 x 117.1 cm (38 1/4 x 46 1/8 in.)

Credit Line

Chester Dale Collection

Accession Number

1963.10.121

Artists / Makers

Edgar Degas (artist) French, 1834 - 1917

Image Use

This image is in the public domain.
Read our full Open Access policy for images .

Inscription

lower right with atelier stamp: Degas

Provenance

Hilaire-Germain-Edgar Degas [1834-1917], the artist; (Degas sale, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, 6-8 May 1918, no. 96); purchased by (Paul Rosenberg et Cie, Paris); sold by 1931 through (Goupil & Cie, London) to Herbert C. Coleman, London and Manchester, England; (Paul Rosenberg et Cie., Paris);[1] sold March 1938 to Chester Dale, New York; gift 1963 to NGA.

[1]According to a letter dated 13 April 1938 from Paul Rosenberg to Chester Dale, in NGA curatorial files, Rosenberg purchased the painting from the Degas sale, and sold it to Coleman, a Manchester cotton dealer, through the Goupil Gallery in London; when Coleman retired, he resold the painting to Rosenberg who sold it to Dale after a few years.

Associated Names

Coleman, Herbert C.
Dale, Chester
Degas, Edgar
Galerie Georges Petit
Galerie Goupil
Rosenberg & Co., Paul P.

Exhibition History

1870: Salon of 1870, Paris, no. 758 as Portrait de Mme C.

1876: Probably Le 2e Exposition de Peinture [Second Impressionist Exhibition], Paris, 1876, no. 43 as Portrait, le soir.

1931: Degas, Portraitiste, Sculpteur, Musée de l'Orangerie, Paris, 1931, no. 49

1932: Exhibition of French Art 1200-1900, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1932, no. 461

1965: The Chester Dale Bequest, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1965, unnumbered checklist.

1986: The New Painting: Impressionism 1874-1886, National Gallery of Art, Washington; Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, 1986, no. 24, repro. [Washington only]

2010: From Impressionism to Modernism: The Chester Dale Collection, National Gallery of Art, Washington, January 2010-January 2012, unnumbered catalogue, repro.

2019: Degas at the Opera, Musée d'Orsay, Paris; National Gallery of Art, Washington, 2019-2020, no. 73, repro. (shown only in Washington).

Bibliography

1941: Catalogue of French Paintings from the Chester Dale Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1941: 6, repro. pl. XI

1942: French Paintings from the Chester Dale Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1942: 36, repro.

1944: French Paintings from the Chester Dale Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1944: 36, repro.

1946: Lemoisne, Paul André. Degas et son oeuvre. 4 vols. Paris, 1946-1949.

1953: French Paintings from the Chester Dale Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1953: 46, repro.

1963: Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. New York, 1963 (reprinted 1964 in French, German, and Spanish): 326, repro.

1965: Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century Paintings & Sculpture of the French School in the Chester Dale Collection, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 75, repro.

1965: Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 39.

1968: National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 32, repro.

1975: European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 98, repro.

1984: Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 474, no. 701, color repro.

1985: European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 120, repro.

1986: Bernard, Bruce. The Impressionist Revolution. London, 1986:81, repro.

1991: Gingold, Diane J., and Elizabeth A.C. Weil. The Corporate Patron. New York, 1991: 32, color repro.

1997: Bailey, Colin B. Renoir's Portraits: Impressions of an age.Yale University Press New Haven and London, in association with National Gallery of Canada Ottawa, 1997,no. 64,repro.

1997: Kelder, Diane. The Great Book of French Impressionism, 1997, no. 267, repro.