Portrait of Madame Dietz-Monnin

Portrait of Madame Dietz-Monnin

Edgar Degas

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Due to financial difficulties in the late 1870s, Degas accepted a commission to paint the portrait of Madame Adèle Dietz-Monnin, a work later included in the catalogue of the 1879 Impressionist Exhibition as "Portrait after a Costume Ball" (Art Institute of Chicago.) Letters attest to frequent sittings in the spring of 1879; however, this drawing is one of very few surviving studies. Vigorously executed in black and white pastel, it shows Degas recording how light fell across the sitter with particular attention to the highlights. The lighting conditions remained a primary concern in the finished work, which places Mme Dietz-Monnin in the context of a brightly lit ball surrounded by reflective surfaces.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Portrait of Madame Dietz-MonninPortrait of Madame Dietz-MonninPortrait of Madame Dietz-MonninPortrait of Madame Dietz-MonninPortrait of Madame Dietz-Monnin

The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.