Detail of Mademoiselle Marie Dihau by Degas in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, August 2010

Artist: Edgar Degas (French, Paris 1834–1917 Paris)

Title: Mademoiselle Marie Dihau (1843–1935)

Date: 1867–68

Medium: Oil on canvas

Dimensions: 8 3/4 x 10 3/4 in. (22.2 x 27.3 cm)

Classification: Paintings

Credit Line: H. O. Havemeyer Collection, Bequest of Mrs. H. O. Havemeyer, 1929

Accession Number: 29.100.182


Gallery Label:

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).

Text from: www.metmuseum.org/Works_of_Art/collection_database/europe...