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Study for “Madame Théodore Gobillard” (Yves Morisot)

1869
Not on view
Degas made this portrait sketch of the older sister of fellow painter Berthe Morisot (1841–1895) in the living room of the family home in Paris. Letters between the Morisot sisters and their mother recount its creation. Madame Morisot wrote to her third daughter Edma: "Do you know that Monsieur Degas is mad about Yves’s face, and that he is doing a sketch of her? . . . He is going to transfer onto the canvas what he did here in an album." The sitter, apparently pleased with Degas’s efforts, wrote: "The drawing that M. Degas made of me in the last two days is really very pretty, both true to life and delicate. . . . I doubt that he can transfer it onto the canvas without ruining it." The resulting unfinished painting (29.100.45) enlarges the composition by about fifty percent.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Study for “Madame Théodore Gobillard” (Yves Morisot)
  • Artist: Edgar Degas (French, Paris 1834–1917 Paris)
  • Date: 1869
  • Medium: Graphite, squared, on buff tracing paper, mounted on laid paper
  • Dimensions: 12 3/8 × 17 5/16 in. (31.5 × 44 cm)
  • Classification: Drawings
  • Credit Line: Purchase, Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, David T. Schiff Gift, and Gifts in memory of Joseph Thomas, 1984
  • Object Number: 1984.76
  • Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints

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Huit Sonnets. . .Illustré de dix-nuef dessins inédits de Edgar Degas
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1946
Seated Woman in Bonnet and Shawl, Edgar Degas French, Aquatint, drypoint, and etching; printed from canceled plate
Seated Woman in Bonnet and Shawl
Edgar Degas
ca. 1879
At the Café des Ambassadeurs, Edgar Degas French, Etching, softground, drypoint, and aquatint; fifth (final) state; canceled plate
At the Café des Ambassadeurs
Edgar Degas
1879–80
Greek Landscape, Edgar Degas French, Etching (only state; impression from cancelled plate)
Greek Landscape
Edgar Degas
1856
On Stage III, Edgar Degas French, Softground etching,drypoint, and roulette on wove paper; fourth state of five
On Stage III
Edgar Degas
1876–77

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