The riddle of the double portrait of Edgar Degas: What the researchers found under the portrait of a woman

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Edgar Degas is known today primarily for his ballet scenes. As a subtle portrait painter - impressionist, his brush belongs to some of the most heartfelt female images. There is one painting in the artist's work that has recently become sensational. At first glance, this is an ordinary woman's portrait, but what we managed to recognize under a layer of paint shocked many. What is the mystery hides "Portrait of a Woman" by Edgar Degas?

About the master

Edgar Degas was born in Paris in 1834 to a wealthy family of bankers. The boy received a good classical education at the Lycée Louis-le-Grand in Paris. The father early noticed the artistic inclinations of his son and in every possible way encouraged his talent, including taking the boy to museums and organizing drawing lessons. Degas began his education by copying works of the Italian Renaissance at the Louvre, and also trained in the workshop of Louis Lamotte, who taught in a traditional academic style. Degas was also heavily influenced by the paintings and frescoes he saw on several long trips to Italy in the late 1850s. After spending three years in Italy and copying paintings by Italian masters, Degas returned to Paris and focused on his favorite themes - dance, horses, seascapes, etc. Degas spent most of his career in Paris. An experimenter, he worked in a variety of techniques, often layering oil pastels on pencil, charcoal, monotype prints, or several other layers of pastels to create a richness of color. Like the Impressionists, he strove to capture fleeting moments in the stream of modern life, but at the same time he did not show much interest in painting plein air landscapes, preferring scenes in theaters and cafes.

Interesting facts about Degas

1. To a greater extent, Edgar Daga wrote in pastels, not oils, and even urged his friends to throw out all the tubes of paint and switch to pastels. Degas, constantly dressed in a frock coat and a hat with a chimney, was an obsessed collector of lace handkerchiefs and walking sticks. Like many Impressionists, he was influenced by Japanese art and collected ukiyo-e prints. His painting The Cotton Office in New Orleans (1873) was the first impressionist work acquired by a museum. Her favorite topic is dancing. Degas created about 1,500 works - more than half of all the artist's works. Besides his love of painting, Degas was also a sculptor. He created over 150 sculptures in wax, clay and plasticine. 7. Edgar Degas was not an absolute impressionist. This was a label with which the master never resigned himself, preferring to call himself a "realist" or "an independent artist." Nevertheless, he was one of the founders of the group, organizer of its exhibitions and one of its most important members. Edgar Degas was the most subtle portrait painter in the Impressionist group. His portraits, consisting of family members and close friends, were mainly executed from the late 1850s to the 1870s. During his frequent visits to Florence and Naples, Degas painted portraits of his Italian relatives with great frankness. It was during one of his last trips to Naples that Degas painted a mysterious female portrait.

Double portrait of a woman Degas

What is its mystery? Degas's famous work turned out to be twofold: researchers using X-rays were able to recognize the second picture. The mysterious face that hid under the "Portrait of a Woman" by Edgar Degas for 140 years was first identified as the face of one of the favorite French Impressionist models - it was the image of Emma Daubigny. The amazing quality of the X-ray made it possible to see a dark-haired and fair-skinned girl looking in the lower left corner, in the direction opposite to the last superimposed portrait.

In general, it was common for artists of the time to repaint old work, but Degas used very thin layers of paint and light oils for his 1876 Portrait of a Woman. Therefore, it is not surprising that soon the face of the model, which he sought to hide, began to shine through. Researchers say that at least 7 years passed between the first and second work of the master. Thus, one can imagine the situation: Degas painted a portrait of Emma Daubigny, the painting hung in his studio for 7 years, and then … something happened that made Degas recolor the model's face with just one stroke, and many others to change the entire canvas.

Who is she - the favorite model of the Impressionists?

Her real name was Maria Emma Tullex and she was born in Montmac in the Oise department in 1851. As a model, she lived in a house on a small street in a poor area of Montmartre at 20 rue Tolose, and posed for the artists Camille Corot, Henri Roir, Puvis de Chavannes and possibly James Tissot. Degas painted Daubigny in different roles: both as a washerwoman and as a banker's bourgeois companion. Particularly famous is the painting with the participation of Emma "The Girl in Red", which allowed the artist to declare himself as a professional painter.

It is believed that Daubigny posed for Degas for 20 years. A number of art critics believe that they had a special relationship. Rather than portraying Daubigny as a professional model, Degas painted her more as a brooding young woman. Degas used this approach frequently in the late 1860s for those he especially loved. In a letter to Emma, which is now in a private collection, Degas pleaded with her: "Little Daubigny, one more session, please." Was Emma just a model for Degas? Unknown. However, sensational discoveries in the artist's work will allow us to learn more and more about Edgar Degas.