1876
oil
canvas
From the collection of Art Institute of Chicago
Henri Degas and His Niece Lucie Degas (The Artist's Uncle and Cousin) is a 1876 oil by Edgar Degas, a Impressionism work, held at Art Institute of Chicago.
This painting shows two people, a man and a young girl, sitting together. They seem separated by age and interest. The girl looks curious, the man looks serious. The artist painted this during a stay in Naples, where he often visited family. This painting is interesting because it shows Degas' connection to his family. To learn more about the artist's style and technique, look at the work of artist: Hilaire Germain Edgar Degas.
Edgar Degas seldom accepted commissions. His portrait subjects were usually close friends and family members—especially those from the Italian side of his family in Florence and Naples, where he frequently visited. He most likely painted this double portrait in 1875 during a four-month stay in Naples. It depicts his orphaned first cousin, Lucie, and their uncle Henri, in whose care the girl had recently been placed. In this painting, Degas showed two people, separated by many years in age, tentatively accepting the circumstances of their new relationship. Having recently lost his own father,…
By descent in the Degas family, presumably to the sitter, Lucie Degas (died 1909), later Marchesa Eduardo Guerrero de Balde, Naples [according to “Les Degas de Naples” (1926) and Paris-Ottawa-New York 1988]; probably by descent to her daughter, Anna Guerrero de Balde, later Signora Marco or Mario Bozzi, Naples [according to Raimondi 1958, Quadro X, and Paris-Ottawa-New York 1988]; by family descent; sold to Wildenstein and Company, New York, November 1926 [according to Art News (1926)]. Mrs. Lewis Larned Coburn (died 1932), Chicago, by at least 1927 [Manson 1927]; bequeathed to the Art…
Venice, Pavillon de France, La XV Esposizione Internazionale d’arte della città di Venezia, April-October 1926, probably no. 16 or 1525. Cambridge, Mass., Fogg Art Museum, Exhibition of French Painting of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, March 6-April 6, 1929, no. 34. Chicago, Art Institute of Chicago, Exhibition of the Mrs. L. L. Coburn Collection: Modern Paintings and Water Colors, April 6-October 9, 1932, no. 6. Northampton, Mass., Smith College Museum of Art, Edgar Degas: Paintings, Drawings, Pastels, Sculpture, November 28-December 18, 1933, no. 17. Chicago, Art Institute of…
Read the full account in the museum source.
Born Hilaire-Germain-Edgar De Gas on 19 July 1834 in Paris, Edgar Degas came from an affluent banking family with aristocratic roots and spent his childhood among the cultivated circles of the French capital.
See the richer artist page
