Rosa Adelaide Aurora Degas, the Duchess Morbilli

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”