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Hilaire-Germain-Edgar Degas, 'Hélène Rouart in her Father's Study', about 1886
About the work
Overview
Hélène Rouart stands in her father’s study, her hands resting on the back of his empty chair. Works from his art collection can be seen behind her, including three Egyptian statues in a glass case and, above her, a Chinese wall hanging. Although Degas set down the final composition with little subsequent alteration, he did rework areas of the surface, even applying pastel directly to the canvas.
Hélène was the daughter of the engineer and amateur artist Henri Rouart, a friend of Degas who had a substantial collection of contemporary French painting, including work by Degas. When Hélène was nine, Degas had painted a portrait of her sitting on her father’s knee. She was 23 and married when this portrait was painted, but Degas does not show her wedding ring, perhaps to emphasise her status as a daughter, rather than as a wife.
Audio description
3 min 38 sec
Listen to an audio description of Hilaire-Germain-Edgar Degas's 'Hélène Rouart in her Father's Study'
Listen to an audio description of Hilaire-Germain-Edgar Degas's 'Hélène Rouart in her Father's Study'
Transcript
This is a description of the portrait of 'Helene Rouart in her Father’s Study' by Edgar Degas, painted around 1886. It is oil on canvas, just over 1 and half metres high, by 1.2 metres wide. It is in a gold frame.
A twenty-three year old woman in a muted blue dress stands to the right, behind a huge wooden chair with arms, her feet and the hem of the dress obscured by it. She is in a small study, hemmed in by a desk on the left and the wall behind her. Slightly turned, and looking to the left, her hands and left forearm rest on the back of the chair, which comes up almost to her waist. It fills the lower right of the painting and is plain, with two horizontal wooden slats that form the back, and a muted green upholstered seat.
Helene’s red hair is parted in the middle and secured behind her head. Her lips are pink, her eyes dark, and her expression a little melancholy. Her blue day-dress is high at the neck and tight at the waist, gently flaring out over her hips. The three-quarter length sleeves are trimmed with darker blue ribbon, and the small frills of a white collar and cuffs are just visible.
The desk on the left is covered in an orange cloth, with two stacks of white documents on it, in the foreground. Behind them is a huge glass display case, partially cut off by the left hand side of the painting, but reaching almost to the top. It contains three tall Egyptian statuettes in a row, going back in space away from us, their stiff upright poses echoing Helene’s pose. A light source from the left catches the silvery metal frame of the case and glints on the glass.
To the right of the lilac-coloured wall behind Helene are two pictures , one above the other. At the top is a seascape in a gold frame by Corot from 1828. Below that, in a pale frame, is a sketchily painted drawing by Millet of a seated peasant girl from the early 1850’s.
Running across the top of the wall, above Helene’s head, is an orange-red, Chinese silk wall hanging, with a blue border at the bottom. It’s decorated with golden kylins, mythical creatures that look a little like stylised lions.
Degas’s brushstrokes are visible and textured, with colours layered over each other, using a technique known as scumbling. For example greens and golds show through the lilac of the wall, reds through areas of the dress. Dark blue outlines are visible, particularly round the dress and Helene’s left hand. Her fingers are heavily shadowed in blue-green. These darker tones contrast with the oranges and blues, centred on Helene’s red hair and blue dress.
The portrait is unusual in that the setting tells us little about Helene herself and more about her father, Henri, whose study it is. Degas only painted portraits of family and people he knew well and he and Henri Rouart were close friends. Henri painted landscapes and had exhibited with Degas and the Impressionists. He was also a great collector of artefacts from Egypt, which he had visited, but also of contemporary French art.
The huge chair belonged to the family of Helene’s mother. She became ill and died the year this portrait of her daughter was painted, which may account for Helene’s melancholy expression.
Key facts
Details
- Full title
- Hélène Rouart in her Father's Study
- Artist
- Hilaire-Germain-Edgar Degas
- Artist dates
- 1834 - 1917
- Date made
- about 1886
- Medium and support
- oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- 162.5 × 121 cm
- Acquisition credit
- Bought, 1981
- Inventory number
- NG6469
- Location
- Room 11
- Collection
- Main Collection
- Frame
- 19th-century French Frame
Provenance
Purchased in 1918 by Paul Rosenberg (1881–1959) at the first Degas Studio sale, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, 6–8 May 1918 (lot 110). It was purchased jointly for 27,500 fr. by Rosenberg and Co., Paris and Galerie Georges Bernheim (?), Paris, purchased at above sale (7 May 1918). Purchased by René Gimpel (1881–1945) (for 70,000 fr.) on 27 May 1924 from Galerie Bernheim Jeune, Paris. By descent to Peter Gimpel (1915–2005), who sold the picture to the National Gallery in April 1981.
Additional information
Text extracted from the National Gallery’s Annual Report, ‘The National Gallery Report: January 1980 – December 1981’ and supplemented by Isobel Muir.
Exhibition history
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2014Degas: Classicism and ExperimentationStaatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe8 November 2014 - 15 February 2015
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2016Impressionism: Capturing LifeHolburne Museum of Art13 February 2016 - 5 June 2016
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2021The National Gallery Masterpiece Tour 2020Gallery Oldham18 September 2021 - 8 January 2022Glan-yr-afon14 May 2022 - 3 September 2022Kirkby Gallery10 October 2022 - 17 December 2022
Bibliography
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1931M. Guérin and D. Halévy, Lettres de Degas, Paris 1931
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1945D. Rouart, Degas: À la recherche de sa technique, Paris 1945
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1946P.-A. Lemoisne, Degas et son oeuvre, Paris 1946
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1949J. Fèvre, Mon oncle Degas, Geneva 1949
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1952'Notable Works of Art Now on the Market', The Burlington Magazine, XCIV/597, 1952
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1955J. Leymarie, L'Impressionisme, Lausanne 1955
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1958J.S. Boggs, 'Degas Notebooks at the Bibliothèque Nationale III: Group C (1863-1886)', The Burlington Magazine, C/664, 1958, pp. 240-6
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1962J.S. Boggs, Portraits by Degas, Berkeley 1962
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1963T. Reff, 'Degas's Copies of Older Art', The Burlington Magazine, CV/723, 1963, pp. 238-51
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1965T. Reff, 'The Chronology of Degas's Notebooks', The Burlington Magazine, CVII/753, 1965, pp. 606-16
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1966R. Gimpel, Diary of an Art Dealer, London 1966
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1968T. Reff, 'The Pictures Within Degas's Pictures', Metropolitan Museum Journal, I, 1968, pp. 125-66
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1976T. Reff, Degas: The Artist's Mind, London 1976
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1979J. House and M. Stevens, Post-Impressionism: Cross-Currents in European Painting (exh. cat. Royal Academy of Arts, 17 November 1979 - 16 March 1980; National Gallery of Art, Washington, 25 May - 1 September 1980), London 1979
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1982National Gallery, The National Gallery Report: January 1980 - December 1981, London 1982
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1983M. Wilson, French Painting after 1800, London 1983
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1984D. Gordon, Acquisition in Focus. Edgar Degas: Hélène Rouart in Her Father's Study, London 1984
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1986D. Sutton, Edgar Degas: Life and Work, New York 1986
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1988K. Adler, Unknown Impressionists, Oxford 1988
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1989R. Kendall, Degas: Images of Women (exh. cat. Tate Liverpool, 21 September - 31 December 1989), Liverpool 1989
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1990A. Distel, Impressionism: The First Collectors 1874-1886, New York 1990
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1990F. Milner, Degas, London 1990
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1991M. Clarke, Corot and the Art of Landscape, London 1991
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1991M. Clarke, 'Degas and Corot: The Affinity Between Two Artists' Artists', Apollo, 1991, pp. 15-20
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1994F.A. Baumann, M. Karabelnik and J.S. Boggs, Degas: Portraits (exh. cat. Kunsthaus, 2 December 1994 - 5 March 1995), Zurich 1994
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1995A. Callen, The Spectacular Body, Science, Method and Meaning in the Work of Degas, New Haven 1995
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1995T. Reff, 'The Morbid Content of Degas' Sculpture', Apollo, 1995, pp. 64-71
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1996J.S. Boggs, Degas, Chicago 1996
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1996R. Kendall, Degas: Beyond Impressionism (exh. cat. The National Gallery, 22 May - 26 August 1996; Art Institute of Chicago, 28 September 1996 - 5 January 1997), London 1996
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1997A. Dumas et al., The Private Collection of Edgar Degas (exh. cat. Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1 October 1997 - 11 January 1998), New York 1997
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1998R. White and A. Roy, 'GC-MS and SEM Studies on the Effects of Solvent Cleaning on Old Master Paintings from the National Gallery, London', Studies in Conservation, XLIII/3, 1998, pp. 159-76
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2001
C. Baker and T. Henry, The National Gallery: Complete Illustrated Catalogue, London 2001
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2004F.A. Baumann, Sehnsucht Italien: Corot und die frühe Freilichtmalerei 1780- 1850 (exh. cat. Museum Langmatt, 1 April - 18 July 2004), Heidelberg 2004
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2004D. Bomford et al., Degas (exh. cat. The National Gallery, 10 November 2004 - 30 January 2005), London 2004
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2005D. Hansen and W. Herzogenrath, Monet and Camille: Portraits of Women in Impressionism, (exh. cat. Kunsthalle, 15 October 2005 - 26 February 2006), Bremen 2005
About this record
If you know more about this work 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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