Hilaire-Germain-Edgar Degas, 'Princess Pauline de Metternich', about 1865

Princess Pauline de Metternich

Hilaire-Germain-Edgar Degas

Room 41

About the work

Overview

Princess Pauline Sander (1836–1921) was the wife of Prince Richard Metternich, the Austro-Hungarian Ambassador at the court of Napoleon III from 1860 to 1871. Known as the ‘ambassadress of pleasure’, she was a glamorous figure in Parisian high society during the Second Empire. A pioneer of fashion, she promoted new styles of dress, including the crinoline.

The Princess had already been painted by the society portraitist Franz Xaver Winterhalter, and by the French seascape artist Eugène Boudin. However, Degas, who was still a young artist, did not paint his portrait of the Princess from life. Instead, he made a partial copy of a full-length visiting card photograph of her and her husband taken around 1867.

This is one of the first painted portraits to have been based on a photograph, and Degas makes no attempt to disguise its origin. Unlike the sharply focused photograph, however, Degas’s painting conveys the effect of blurred movement, as if the Princess has just been caught turning her head.

In-depth

The Princess had already been painted by the society portraitist Franz Xaver Winterhalter, and by the seascape artist Eugène Boudin, who showed her standing in profile on a beach. Degas may have seen the couple at the racetrack or ballet – the Prince was a leading member of the Jockey Club, which had an important role in both horse racing and in the running of the Paris Opera – but the young artist did not paint his portrait from life. Instead, he made a partial copy of a full-length carte de visite (visiting card) photograph of the Princess and her husband taken around 1867 by Eugène Disdéri (1819–1889). Disdéri had made his fortune by popularising the carte de visite, which he patented in 1854. These were made by gluing a small photograph to a card mount, which was the size of a standard visiting card.

In the photograph, Princess Pauline stands alongside her husband, her left arm entwined in his right. In his portrait, however, Degas has removed the Prince completely and also the Princess’s left arm. She is isolated against a background of floral wallpaper, which overlaps her right sleeve. The close repetition of the floral motif, which has been drawn with graphite pencil and then covered with a wash of paint, suggests that Degas may have traced the pattern directly onto the canvas. Unlike the photograph, Degas’s picture is in colour, albeit very limited in range. Two colours dominate – variations of a mustard or Naples yellow with a greenish tinge, which takes on an antique gold hue for the wallpaper, and variations of a grey-black for the dress and hair.

Degas has retained the military style of the Princess’s bodice, but the picture’s flat background helps project her forward in space, an effect enhanced by the thicker paint on her face, hair and clothes. The painting of the face itself is particularly striking, especially when compared with the photograph. Despite its small size, the carte de visite has a sharply focused clarity and strong shadows, but Degas has softened the Princess’s features, notably her eyes. In the photograph her mouth is made prominent by shadow, but Degas paints it using just a single thin line of black paint that is barely visible in places. Her nose is reduced to two judiciously placed – and slightly asymmetrical – black dots for the nostrils. Above all, Degas creates a remarkable effect of blurred movement – as if the Princess has been caught just as she turns her head – that is not present in the photograph’s more formal pose.

This is one of the first portraits to have been based on a photograph, and Degas makes no attempt to disguise its photographic origin. He remained deeply interested in photography, and a number of his paintings reveal his careful study of this new medium.

Key facts

Details

Full title: Princess Pauline de Metternich
Artist: Hilaire-Germain-Edgar Degas
Artist dates: 1834 - 1917
Date made: about 1865
Medium and support: oil on canvas
Dimensions: 41 × 29 cm
Acquisition credit: Presented by the Art Fund, 1918
Inventory number: NG3337
Location: Room 41
Collection: Main Collection
Frame: 18th-century French Frame

Provenance

First Sale of Degas’ Studio, Paris, 6/8 May, 1918 (lot 74); presented by the National Art‐Collections Fund, 1918. Exhibited for a time at the Tate Gallery; transferred thence, 1934. Degas Exhibition, Edinburgh, 1952 (No. 5); Un Siècle de Vision Nouvelle at the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, 1955 (No. 94).

Additional information

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; for further information, see the full catalogue entry.

Exhibition history

2016

The Spectacular Second Empire, 1852-1870

Musée d'Orsay

26 September 2016 - 16 January 2017
2018

One Unbroken Stream

National Portrait Gallery (London)

3 March 2018 - 2 September 2018
2023

Blur in Photography

Musée de l'Elysée

1 March 2023 - 21 May 2023

Bibliography

1919

'National Art Collections Fund Annual Report, 1918-19', National Art Collections Fund Annual Report, 1919
1937

J. Rewald, 'Un portrait de la Princesse de Metternich par Edgar Degas', L'Amour de l'Art, 1937
1946

Martin Davies, National Gallery Catalogues: French School, London 1946
1946

P.-A. Lemoisne, Degas et son oeuvre, Paris 1946
1949

H. Schwarz, 'Art and Photography', Magazine of Art, 1949
1957

Martin Davies, National Gallery Catalogues: French School, 2nd edn (revised), London 1957
1966

O. Stelzer, Kunst und Photographie, Munich 1966
1968

A. Scharf, Art and Photography, London 1968
1970

Davies, Martin, and Cecil Gould, National Gallery Catalogues: French School: Early 19th Century, Impressionists, Post-Impressionists etc., London 1970
1970

J.A. Schmoll Gen. Eisenworth, Malerei nach Fotografie von der Camera Obscura bis zur Pop ArtKgl. Gemäldegalerie zu Cassel, Munich 1970
1974

J. Lassaigne and F. Minervino, Tout l'oeuvre peint de Degas, Paris 1974
1979

I. Dunlop, Degas, London 1979
1983

A. Terrasse, Degas et la photographie, Paris 1983
1986

D. Sutton, Edgar Degas: Life and Work, New York 1986
1989

D. Sutton, 'The Degas Sales and England', The Burlington Magazine, CXXXI/1033, 1989, pp. 266-72
1989

R. Kendall, Degas: Images of Women (exh. cat. Tate Liverpool, 21 September - 31 December 1989), Liverpool 1989
2001

C. Baker and T. Henry, The National Gallery: Complete Illustrated Catalogue, London 2001
2004

D. Seward, Eugènie: The Empress and Her Empire, London 2004
2004

D. Bomford et al., Degas (exh. cat. The National Gallery, 10 November 2004 - 30 January 2005), London 2004

About this record

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.

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You've viewed 6 of 16 works

Hilaire-Germain-Edgar Degas, 'Princess Pauline de Metternich', about 1865

About the work

Overview

In-depth

Key facts

Details

Provenance

Additional information

Source

Exhibition history

Bibliography

About this record

Images

More works by Hilaire-Germain-Edgar Degas