A Woman Seated beside a Vase of Flowers (Madame Paul Valpinçon?)

Edgar Degas

1865 · Oil on canvas · European Paintings

The juxtaposition of the prominent bouquet and the off-center figure, gazing distractedly to the right, exemplifies Degas’s aim of capturing individuals in seemingly casual, slice-of-life views. The sitter is probably the wife of the artist’s schoolboy friend Paul Valpinçon; Degas immensely enjoyed outings to their country house, Ménil-Hubert, and the dahlias, asters, and gaillardias in the bouquet would suggest a late summer visit. The painting was preceded by a pencil drawing of the woman, also dated 1865 (Fogg Museum, Cambridge, Mass.).

Artist

Edgar Degas

Date

1865

Medium

Oil on canvas

Department

European Paintings

Credit line

H. O. Havemeyer Collection, Bequest of Mrs. H. O. Havemeyer, 1929