Elena Carafa was Degas’s first cousin. Her mother, Stefanina, the Duchessa Montejasi-Cicerale, was the youngest sister of Degas’s father. Like many members of Degas’s family they lived in Naples, which Degas himself returned to in the winter of 1873–4, when he accompanied his dying father there. He was in Naples again in 1875 for the funeral of an uncle.
This portrait was either painted during one of these visits – being in mourning may explain Elena’s black dress – or when Elena was in Paris. Degas had previously painted Elena with her younger sister, Camilla, around 1865–8. In that portrait, she also looks directly at us.
Degas originally planned to show Elena facing towards the right, with a more pensive look. In the finished painting, he turned her face and upper body to the left so that she looks at us directly.
Text extracted from the ‘Provenance’ section of the catalogue entry in Martin Davies, with additions and some revisions by Cecil Gould, ‘National Gallery Catalogues: French School: Early 19th Century, Impressionists, Post-Impressionists, etc.’, London 1970 and supplemented by Isobel Muir; for further information, see the full catalogue entry.
C. Baker and T. Henry, The National Gallery: Complete Illustrated Catalogue, London 2001
If you know more about this painting or have spotted an error, please contact us. Please note that exhibition histories are listed from 2009 onwards. Bibliographies may not be complete; more comprehensive information is available in the National Gallery Library.
