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Shown from about the hips up, a woman whose pale face is deep in shadow stands with her back to us, wearing a black and gray dress and hat, in front of a colorful but loosely painted, indistinct background in this nearly square painting. She stands just to our right of center with her elbows bent, perhaps to clasp her hands in front of her. Her head is turned slightly toward us so we see the line of her forehead, nose, and chin almost in profile facing our left. Her auburn hair seems to be pulled up under a black hat that sits on the back of her head. Her high-necked, charcoal-gray vest-like bodice has a line of white at the neck, suggesting lace or an undershirt. The bodice covers a black shirt with ruffles that fall at least to her elbows, and the long dress drapes close along the contours of her legs. She looks to the far wall, which is painted with sketchy, visible brushstrokes in marigold orange, lemon-lime green, brown, black, and pale yellow to create the impression of paintings in gold frames. The artist signed the painting in dark red in the lower right corner: “Degas.”

Woman Viewed from Behind (Visit to a Museum), c. 1879-1885

Edgar Degas

West Building, Main Floor — Gallery 86

Museums can be places to look at not only art but also people. Here, Degas shows an elegantly dressed woman—likely his friend and fellow artist Mary Cassatt — at the Louvre Museum in Paris. The strips of yellow and orange in front of her are frames: she is inspecting paintings.

But the works themselves, a blur of colors, are not Degas’s interest. His focus is on the figure. With this shift in emphasis, Degas asks us what it means to look and to be looked at. What does the woman see? With her back to us, does she know she is being observed? Can we ever know?

Object Data

Medium

oil on canvas

Dimensions

overall: 81.3 x 75.6 cm (32 x 29 3/4 in.)

framed: 114.3 x 107.9 x 11.1 cm (45 x 42 1/2 x 4 3/8 in.)

Credit Line

Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon

Accession Number

1985.64.11

Artists / Makers

Edgar Degas (artist) French, 1834 - 1917

Image Use

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Detail Information

Inscription

lower right: Degas

Provenance

Hilaire-Germain-Edgar Degas [1830-1917], Paris, the artist; (Degas sale, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, 11 December 1918, no. 20). Mme. Friedmann, Paris, by 1935;[1] by inheritance to Mme René Dujarric de la Rivière, Boulogne, France, by 1960.[2] (Wildenstein and Co., New York); sold 1973 to Mr. Paul Mellon, Upperville, VA; gift 1985 to NGA.

[1]Published as Friedmann collection by Riviere 1935, p. 24.

[2]Per label on back, lent by Mme R. Dujarric de la Rivière to 1960 exhibition at Durand-Ruel. Relationship between Mme Friedmann and Mme Dujarric according to Wildenstein précis dated 1973, in NGA curatorial files.

Associated Names

Degas, Edgar
Dujarric de la Rivière, René, Mme
Friedmann, Mme
Galerie Georges Petit
Mellon, Paul
Wildenstein & Co., Inc.

Exhibition History

1955: Degas dans les collections françaises, Gazette des Beaux-Arts, Paris, 1955, no. 73, as La visite au musée.

1960: Edgar Degas 1834-1917, Durand-Ruel, Paris, 1960, no. 19, repro., as La visite au musée.

1978: Degas, Virginia Museum, Richmond, 1978, no. 10, as Woman Seen from Behind (The Visit to the Museum).

1979: 19th and 20th Century French Painting from the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, 1979 (long term exhibition), checklist no. 24.

1986: Gifts to the Nation: Selected Acquisitions from the Collections of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1986, unnumbered checklist.

1988: Degas, Grand Palais, Paris; National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1988-1989.

1994: Degas -- Portraits, Kunsthaus Zürich, 1994-1995, no. 172, repro., as Visiting the museum.

1998: Loan to display with permanent collection, The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, 1998.

1999: An Enduring Legacy: Masterpieces from the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1999-2000, no cat.

2000: Impression: Painting Quickly in France, 1860-1890, National Gallery, London; Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam; Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, 2000-2001, fig. 149 (shown only in Williamstown).

2003: Degas and the Italians in Paris, Exhibit Halls, Palazzo dei Diamanti, Ferrara; Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh, 2003-2004, not in cat. (shown only in Edinburgh).

2015: Degas, an Impressionist Painter?, Musée des impressionnismes, Giverny, 2015, no. 36, repro.

2017: Degas, Impressionism, and the Paris Millinery Trade, Saint Louis Art Museum; California Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco, 2017, no. 31, repro (shown only in San Francisco).

Bibliography

1918: "Movement des Arts: Atelier Edgar Degas." La Chronique des arts et de la curiosité (April-May 1918):102

1935: Rivière, Georges. M. Degas. Bourgois de Paris. Paris, 1935:repro.

1970: Minervino, Fiorella. L'opera completa di Degas. Milan, 1970: no. 456, repro., as Signora in un Museo.

1980: Terrasse, Antoine. Die Gro en Meister der Malerei: Edgar Degas. Frankfurt, 1980:no. 320, repro., as Frau in einem Museum.

1984: Lemoisne, Paul-Andre. Degas et son oeuvre. 5 vols. New York and London, 1984:II:no. 465, 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. 23, fig. 1.