Marie Dihau (1843–1935), a successful pianist and singer, lived in Lille at the time this portrait was made but often traveled to Paris to perform and visit her brothers. She later recalled that this picture was painted rapidly before one of her departures for home, which perhaps accounts for the unfinished character of the background. Marie Dihau's brother Désiré, a bassoonist for the Paris Opéra, is the second figure from the left in "The Ballet from 'Robert le Diable'" (also on view in this gallery).

the sitter, Marie Dihau, Paris (until 1922; sold on July 19, 1922, for Fr 35,000 to Durand-Ruel); [Durand-Ruel, Paris, 1922; stock no. 12052; sold on November 2, 1922 to Durand-Ruel, New York]; [Durand-Ruel, New York, 1922–23; stock no. 4765; sold on January 16, 1923 to Havemeyer]; Mrs. H. O. (Lousine W.) Havemeyer, New York (1923–d. 1929; cat., 1931, p. 115)

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The H. O. Havemeyer Collection," March 10–November 2, 1930, no. 53 [2nd ed., 1958, no. 107].

Boston. Institute of Modern Art. "France Forever," November 23–December 8, 1943, no catalogue.

Newark Museum. "19th-Century French and American Paintings from the Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art," April 9–May 15, 1946, no. 14.

Dallas Museum of Fine Arts. "Six Centuries of Headdress," April 3–May 1, 1955, no. 18.

San Antonio. Marion Koogler McNay Art Institute. "Paintings, Drawings, Prints and Sculpture by Edgar Degas," October 16–November 13, 1955, no catalogue?

South Hadley, Mass. Dwight Art Memorial. "French and American Impressionism," October 5–November 4, 1956, no. 9.

Richmond. Virginia Museum. "Degas," May 23–July 9, 1978, no. 3.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Splendid Legacy: The Havemeyer Collection," March 27–June 20, 1993, no. A198.

"The H. O. Havemeyer Collection." Parnassus 2 (March 1930), p. 7.

H. O. Havemeyer Collection: Catalogue of Paintings, Prints, Sculpture and Objects of Art. n.p., 1931, p. 115.

Agnes Mongan. "Degas as Seen in American Collections." Burlington Magazine 72 (June 1938), p. 296.

P[aul]. A[ndré]. Lemoisne. Degas et son œuvre. [reprint 1984]. Paris, [1946–49], vol. 2, pp. 88–89, 126, no. 172, ill., dates it about 1867–68; relates that according to Mlle Dihau, this picture was executed rapidly at the restaurant of Mère Lefebvre as consolation for one of her many departures from Paris for Lille, alluded to by the inclusion of her travelling bag; notes that Degas met several musicians from the Opéra at Mère Lefebvre's restaurant.

Edgar Germain Hilaire Degas: Letters. Oxford, 1947, p. 260.

Pierre Cabanne. Edgar Degas. Paris, [1957], p. 96 [English ed., 1958].

Jean Sutherland Boggs. Portraits by Degas. Berkeley, 1962, pp. 106, 116, dates it 1868.

Charles Sterling and Margaretta M. Salinger. "XIX–XX Centuries." French Paintings: A Catalogue of the Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. 3, New York, 1967, pp. 61–62, ill.

Fiorella Minervino in L'opera completa di Degas. Milan, 1970, pp. 96–98, no. 235, ill.

Norma Broude. "Degas's 'Misogyny'." Art Bulletin 59 (March 1977), p. 101.

Ian Dunlop. Degas. New York, 1979, pp. 77, 198.

Charles S. Moffett. Degas: Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1979, pp. 7, 9, 15 n. 11, colorpl. 10, calls it a "very private and telling view of another artist".

Charles F. Stuckey in Toulouse-Lautrec: Paintings. Exh. cat., Art Institute of Chicago. Chicago, 1979, p. 157, asserts that this portrait must be the one which Toulouse-Lautrec supposedly praised as "primitive".

Michael Wentworth. "Energized Punctuality: James Tissot's 'Gentleman in a Railway Carriage'." Worcester Art Museum Journal 3 (1979–80), pp. 17–18, 26 n. 24, fig. 8, suggests that this picture may have influenced Tissot's "Gentleman in a Railway Carriage" (1871–72; Worcester Art Museum).

Eugénie de Keyser. Degas: Réalité et métaphore. Louvain-la-Neuve, 1981, p. 94, observes that the objects Degas included in his portraits allude to memories and emotions that he shared with his sitters, noting a certain melancholy conveyed by the large travelling bag in this picture.

Roy McMullen. Degas: His Life, Times, and Work. Boston, 1984, p. 175.

Charles S. Moffett. Impressionist and Post-Impressionist Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1985, pp. 53, 55, 69, 250, ill. (color).

Frances Weitzenhoffer. The Havemeyers: Impressionism Comes to America. New York, 1986, p. 240, pl. 167, asserts that Mrs. Havemeyer preferred such "penetrating studies of personality and mood . . . above all else".

Colta Ives. "French Prints in the Era of Impressionism and Symbolism." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 46 (Summer 1988), p. 15, ill. p. 14 (color), cites it as an example of how attuned Degas was to the accessories of modern women's dress.

Henri Loyrette in Degas. Exh. cat., Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais, Paris. New York, 1988, p. 161.

Henri Loyrette. Degas. Paris, 1991, pp. 216–17, asserts that Désiré and Marie Dihau commissioned their portraits from Degas.

Louisine W. Havemeyer. Sixteen to Sixty: Memoirs of a Collector. 3rd ed. [1st ed. 1930, repr. 1961]. New York, 1993, pp. 257, 337 n. 376.

Susan Alyson Stein in Splendid Legacy: The Havemeyer Collection. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1993, pp. 280, 285, pl. 277.

Gretchen Wold in Splendid Legacy: The Havemeyer Collection. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1993, p. 325, no. A198, ill. p. 326.

Jean Sutherland Boggs in Degas Portraits. Exh. cat., Kunsthaus Zürich. London, 1994, pp. 18, 35 n. 11, states that it was a gift from Degas to the sitter.

Gioia Mori in Degas: Classico e moderno. Exh. cat., Complesso del Vittoriano, Rome. Milan, 2004, p. 90.

Richard R. Brettell and Stephen F. Eisenman. Nineteenth-Century Art in the Norton Simon Museum. 1, New Haven, 2006, p. 390, fig. 101c.

Jill DeVonyar and Richard Kendall. Degas & Music. Exh. cat., Hyde Collection. Glens Falls, N. Y., 2009, p. 64.

Marie Dihau was a pianist and singer who often performed in Paris at the Colonne and the Lamoureux concerts. With her brother Désiré, who played the bassoon in the orchestra at the Opéra, she belonged to the music-loving circle of Degas and his father. Around 1867–68, when this portrait is thought to have been painted, she was dividing her time between Lille and Paris. She used to tell how Degas made this picture of her with her traveling bag as a consolation gift on one of her departures from Paris. It was done rapidly, its background left unfinished, in the restaurant of Mère Lefebvre in the rue de la Tour d'Auvergne. A few years later Degas painted her again, seated at the piano (Musée d'Orsay, Paris). After the war in 1870 Mlle Dihau settled in Paris with her brother Désiré and it was at their house that Toulouse-Lautrec, their cousin, was introduced to Degas. In 1890 he too painted her portrait at the piano (Musée d'Albi).