Plan your visit. 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016.

Plan your visit. 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016.

Rosa Adelaide Aurora Degas, the Duchess Morbilli

Edgar Degas
1834-1917

Rosa Adelaide Aurora Degas, the Duchess Morbilli

ca. 1858
14 1/2 x 7 9/16 inches (368 x 192 mm)
Watercolor with white opaque watercolor and black chalk on wove paper.
2017.52

Thaw Collection.

Notes
Degas' grandfather fled the revolution in France and settled in Naples, though his eldest son--Degas' father--would later return to Paris. The artist' s Neapolitan relatives appear in numerous painted and drawn portraits that were executed while he was in Italy. Rosa (1805-1879), the eldest sister of Degas' father, married Giuseppe Morbilli, Duca di S. Angelo a Frosolone, who died in 1842, leaving her with seven children to support. Her eldest son, Gustavo, died during the 1848 revolution in Italy. This early watercolor--a technique Degas rarely used--was likely executed about 1858 in Naples. The intelligent countenance of the artist's fifty three-year-old aunt renders her among his most compelling familial subjects. --Exhibition Label, from “Degas: Drawings and Sketchbooks”
Associated names
Ivins, William Mills, 1881-1961, former owner.
Thaw, Eugene Victor, former owner.
Thaw, Clare, former owner.
Bibliography
Thaw Catalogue Raisonné, 2017, no. 78, repr.
Stampfle, Felice, and Cara D. Denison. Drawings from the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Eugene V. Thaw. New York : Pierpont Morgan Library, 1975, no. 92.
Artist
Classification
Century Drawings
School
Department