Victoria Dubourg

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Victoria Dubourg

Artist Edgar Degas (French, 1834-1917)

Place of OriginFrance

Dateabout 1868-1869

DimensionsPainting: 32 x 25 1/2 in. (81.3 x 64.8 cm)
Frame: 40 1/4 x 33 3/4 x 3 3/8 in. (102.2 x 85.7 x 8.6 cm)

Mediumoil on canvas

ClassificationPaintings

Credit LineGift of Mr. and Mrs. William E. Levis

Object number

1963.45

On View

Toledo Museum of Art (2445 Monroe Street), Gallery, 33

Collections

Paintings

Published ReferencesDegas, Paris, Georges Petit, 1924, no. 23, repr.

Lemoisne, P. A., "Artistes Contemorains: Edgar Degas à propos d'une Exposition Récente," Revue de L'art Ancien et Moderne, Juin 1924, p. 21, repr.

Manson, J. B., The Life and Work of Edgar Degas, New York, p. 46.

Degas, portraitiste, sculpteur, Paris, Orangerie, 1931, no. 36, repr.

Zahar, Marcel, "Maîtres du XIXe siècle," Formes, no. 16, June 1931, pp. 103-104, repr. p. 102.

Beaux-Arts, vol. 9, August 1931, pp. 22-23, repr.

Alexandre, A., "Degas, nouveaux apercus," L'Art et les artistes, no. 54, Feb. 1935, p. 155, repr.

Emporium, vol. 84, 1936, p. 122, repr.

The Painting of France Since the French Revolution, San Francisco, M.H. de Young Memorial Museum, 1940, no. 29, repr.

Masterpieces of French Art, Lent by Museums and Collectors of France, Chicago, Art Institute of Chicago, 1941, no. 40, pl. XXVIII.

Lemoisne, P. A., Degas et son oeuvre, Paris, 1946, I, p. 56, II, no. 137, repr.

Masterpieces Recalled, New York, Paul Rosenberg Gallery, 1957, no. 11, repr. p. 22.

Burlington Magazine, vol. 99, 1957, p. 104.

Bulletin, Cleveland Museum of Art, December 1957, p. 215.

Boggs, J. S., Portraits by Degas, Berkeley, 1962, pp. 31, 48, 92n., 117, fig. 50.

Reff, T., "The Chronology of Degas's Notebooks," Burlington Magazine, CVII, Dec. 1965, p. 609, n. 14.

In the Light of Vermeer, New York, Arno/Worldwide, 1966, no. 43, repr.

Boggs, J. S., Drawings by Degas, City Art Museum of St. Louis, 1966, p. 86.

Sutton, Denys, "Nineteenth-Century Painting: Trends and Cross-Currents," Apollo, vol. 86, no. 70, Dec. 1967, p. 492, repr. (b&w) fig. 25, p. 493.

Lee, Katherine C., "French Impressionism and Post-Impressionism," Toledo Museum of Art, Museum News, vol. 12, no. 3, Autumn 1969, repr. (col.) p. 71.

Russoli, F., L'opera completa di Degas, 1970, no. 211, repr. p. 96.

The Toledo Museum of Art, The Toledo Museum of Art, European Paintings, Toledo, 1976, p. 52, pl. 244.

Broude, Norma, "Degas's 'Misogyny,'" Art Bulletin, LIX, no. 1, March 1977, pp. 101-102, repr.

Ravin, James, G., "Art and Medicine: Degas," Bulletin, Academy of Medicine of Toledo and Lucas County, vol. 72, no. 5, Nov./Dec. 1981, p. 23, repr. and on cover.

Sutton, Denys, Edgar Degas: Life and Work, New York, 1986, p. 68.

Thomson, Richard, The Private Degas, London, Arts Council of Great Britain, 1987, p. 17, fig. 12, p. 20.

Kendall, Richard, ed., Degas by Himself, London, 1987, repr. (col.), p. 129.

Boggs, Jean Sutherland, Degas, New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1988, no. 83, pp. 142-143, repr. (col.).

Armstrong, Carol, "Reflections on the Mirror: Painting, Photography, and the Self-Portraits of Edgar Degas," in Representations, No. 22, Spring 1988, p. 129, repr. fig. 10, p. 131.

Kane, Elizabeth, "Victoria Dubourg: The other Fantin-Latour," Woman's Art Journal, vol. 9, no. 2, Fall 1988/Winter 1989, p. 15.

Gerstein, Marc, Impressionism: Selections from Five American Museums, New York, Hudson Hills, 1989, no. 15, p. 52, repr. (col.).

Loyrette, Henri and Gary Tinterow, Impressionnisme: Les origines 1859-1869, Paris, 1994, p. 203, repr. [not in exh.].

Gruitrooy, Gerhard, Degas: Impressions of a Great Master, New York, 1994, p. 43, repr. (col.).

Bailey, Colin B., Renior's portraits: Impressions of an Age, New Haven, 1997, p. 59, fig. 65.

Pitman, Dianne W., Bazille: Purity, Pose and Painting in the 1860's, University Park, PA, 1998, p. 85, fig. 53.

Degas and America: the Early Collectors, Atlanta, High Museum of Art, 2000, no. 20, p. 16, 122, repr. (col.).

Taylor, Bradley L., "The effect of surrogation on viewer response to expressional qualities in works of art," unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Univeristy of Michigan, 2001, pl. P1, p. 186.

Berthe Morisot, 1841-1895, Paris, Reunion des Musees Nationaux, 2002, p. 28, fig. 5.

Patry, Sylvie, "Victoria Dubourg, femme supérieure et peintre de merite,'" in Fantin-Latour: de la réalité au rêve, Lausanne, Fondation de l'Hermitage, 2007, p. 168, fig. 1.

Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo Museum of Art Masterworks, Toledo, 2009, p. 248, repr. (col.).

Lourenco, Eduardo,Henri Fantin-Latour (1836-1904), Lisbon, Fundacao Calouste Gulbenkian, 2009, p. 36 (Span), p. 221 (Eng), fig. 8, repr. (col.) p. 34.

Rey, Jean-Dominique, Berthe Morisot, Paris, Flammarion, 2010, p. 24, repr. (col.) p. 22.

MacDonald, Heather and Mitchell Merling, Working Among Flowers: Floral Still-Life Painting in Nineteenth-Century France, Dallas, Dallas Museum of Art, 2014, repr. (col.) p. 109, fig. 61.

Loyrette, Henri, Degas: A New Vision, Melbourne, Australia, The Council of Trustees of the National Gallery of Victoria, 2016, pp. 52-54, repr. (col.) p. 53.

Madeline, Laurence, et al., Women Artists in Paris, 1850-1900, New York and New Haven, Connecticut, American Federation of Arts/Yale University Press, 2017, p. 28, repr. (col.) fig. 3. Pierotti, Julie Novarese, Dixon Gallery and Gardens: Paintings Sculpture, Works on Paper, Memphis, Dixon Gallery and Gardens, 2021, repr. (col.) fig. 1, p. 242.

Exhibition HistoryParis, Georges Petit, Degas, 1924, no. 23, repr.

Paris, Orangerie, Degas, portraitiste, sculpteur, 1931, no. 36.

Paris, Paul Rosenberg Gallery, Grands Maîtres du XIXe siècle, 1931, no. 26.

Amsterdam, Stedelijk Museum, Honderd Jaar Fransche Kunst, 1938.

Buenos Aires, Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, La Pintura Francesca de David a Nuestros Dias, 1939.

San Francisco, M.H. de Young Memorial Museum, The Painting of France Since the French Revolution, 1940, no. 29.

Chicago, Art Institute of Chicago, Masterpieces of French Art, Lent by Museums and Collectors of France, 1941, no. 40.

Portland, Portland Art Museum, Masterpieces of French Painting, 1941, no. 27.

Washington, D.C., National Gallery of Art, 1953.

New York, Paul Rosenberg Gallery, Masterpieces Recalled, 1957, no. 11.

The Hague, Mauritshuis; Paris, Orangerie; New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, In the Light of Vermeer: Five Centuries of Painting, 1966, no. 43.

Paris, Grand Palais; Ottawa, National Gallery of Canada; New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Degas, 1988, no. 83.

Pittsburgh, Carnegie Museum of Art; Minneapolis, Minneapolis Institute of Arts; Kansas City, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art; Toledo, The Toledo Museum of Art; Impressionism: Selections from Five American Museums, 1989-1990, no. 15.

Atlanta, High Museum of Art; Minneapolis, Minneapolis Institute of Arts; Degas and America: the Early Collectors, 2000, no. 20.

Indianapolis, Indianapolis Museum of Art, reciprocal loan for Indianapolis loan to Toledo Museum of Art exhibition Van Gogh: Fields, 2003.

Melbourne, National Gallery of Victoria; Houston, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Degas: A New Vision, June 24, 2016-Janary 9, 2017.

Label TextAlthough this portrait seems to present “slice of life” informality, Edgar Degas went to great lengths to compose the painting to his satisfaction. His effort to work out specific details as well as the overall composition is recorded in a sketchbook sheet and three other known drawings. Degas’s revisions can also be seen on the canvas itself. On the wall above the woman’s head, you might be able to make out the two framed pictures that Degas decided to remove by reworking the paint surface. The woman depicted in the portrait, Victoria Dubourg (1840–1926), was an acquaintance of Degas’s. A painter herself, she met the artist Henri Fantin-Latour while they both were sketching in the Musée du Louvre, Paris. They became engaged in 1869, eventually marrying in 1878. Dubourg moved in a circle of artists and writers and earned a modest reputation for her still life paintings, to which Degas no doubt alludes by including a vase of lilacs.