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Shown from the lap up, a young woman with pale skin, rosy cheeks, dark eyes, and upswept chestnut-brown hair sits in an upholstered chair angled to our left and she looks in that direction in this vertical portrait painting. Light falls directly on her oval-shaped face, and she has a pointed chin and a straight nose. Her dark eyebrows are arched and though her eyes initially look dark as well, closer inspection reveals a sliver of silvery blue iris around the eye closer to us. Her full, pink mouth is slightly parted. She wears a brown, perhaps fur, shawl behind her shoulders over her long black dress. A few touches of rust red on the sleeve closer to us suggests a floral pattern but details are mostly lost in this dark area. She wears parchment-white gloves and her left hand, closer to us, appears to be tucked into a pocket or into a fold of her skirt so only the wrist is visible. She cups her opposite hand, perhaps cradling a small object. The fabric of the chair is painted with touches of burnt orange and ivory. Canary-yellow and white flowers dance around her head, presumably cascading from a vase on a table behind her. Most of the background, especially along the left edge, is painted with a field of stone blue but an area of loosely painted terracotta red above her head suggests a patterned wallpaper or more flowers.

Edgar Degas

Mademoiselle Malot, c. 1877

West Building, Main Floor — Gallery 86

Medium

oil on canvas

Dimensions

overall: 81.1 x 65.1 cm (31 15/16 x 25 5/8 in.)

framed: 106 x 90.8 cm (41 3/4 x 35 3/4 in.)

Credit Line

Chester Dale Collection

Accession Number

1963.10.18

Artists / Makers

Edgar Degas (artist) French, 1834 - 1917

Image Use

This image is in the public domain.
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Inscription

lower right with atelier stamp: Degas

Provenance

Hilaire-Germain-Edgar Degas [1834-1917], the artist, Paris; (Degas sale, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, 6-8 May 1918, no. 86); purchased by Jacques Seligmann [1858-1923], Paris, for his private collection; (Seligmann sale, American Art Galleries, New York, 27 January 1921, no. 45); purchased by (Scott & Fowles); sold to Henry D. Hughes, Philadelphia; on consignment with (Marie Sterner Galleries); sold 10 November 1928 to Chester Dale [1882-1962], New York; bequest 1963 to NGA.

Associated Names

American Art Association
Dale, Chester
Degas, Edgar
Galerie Georges Petit
Hughes, Henry D.
Marie Sterner Gallery
Scott & Fowles
Seligmann, Jacques

Exhibition History

1930: Cent ans de peinture française, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, 1930, no. 12, as Jeune femme assise.

1931: Degas and his Tradition, Museum of French Art, New York, 1931, no. 3

1931: Degas, Portraitiste, Sculpteur, Musée de l'Orangerie, Paris, 1931, no. 50

1959: Masterpieces of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist Painting, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1959, unnumbered catalogue, repro.

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

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. 269, repro. (shown only in Washington).

Bibliography

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

1962: Boggs, Jean Sutherland. Portraits by Degas. Univ. of California, 1962:122, repro. pl. 91.

1963: MacNeil, Neil. "Chester Dale: Collector." McCalls (November 1963): 121, repro.

1965: Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century Paintings & Sculpture of the French School in the Chester Dale Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 77, repro.

1965: Frankfurter, Alfred. "How Great is the Dale Collection?" Art News 64 (May 1965):40-43, 51-53, repro.

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

1966: Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds. A Pageant of Painting from the National Gallery of Art. 2 vols. New York, 1966: 2:440, color repro.

1968: Gandolfo, Giampaolo et al. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Great Museums of the World. New York, 1968: 84-86, color repro.

1968: National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 31, repro.

1974: Reff, Theodore. "The Degas of Detroit." Bulletin of the Detroit Institute of Arts 53 (1974):35-36, repro.

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

1979: Watson, Ross. The National Gallery of Art, Washington. New York, 1979: 115, pl. 101.

1984: Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 480, no. 709, color repro.

1985: European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 119, repro.

2017: Hoenigswald, Ann, and Kimberly A. Jones. "The Question of Finish in the Work of Edgar Degas." In Degas, Daphne Barbour and Suzanne Quillen Lomax, eds. Facture. Conservation, Science, Art History 3 (2017): 20-49, esp. 34-36, figs. 11 and 12 (detail).