Mademoiselle Marie Dihau (1843–1935)

Mademoiselle Marie Dihau (1843–1935)

Mademoiselle Marie Dihau (1843–1935)

Artist:Edgar Degas (French, Paris 1834–1917 Paris)
Date:1867–68
Medium:Oil on canvas
Dimensions:8 3/4 x 10 3/4 in. (22.2 x 27.3 cm)
Classification:Paintings
Credit Line:H. O. Havemeyer Collection, Bequest of Mrs. H. O. Havemeyer, 1929

Marie Dihau was a successful pianist and singer who lived in Lille but often came to Paris to perform. She recalled that Degas executed this portrait quickly at a restaurant. Shown in sharp profile, wedged between the remnants of a finished meal and a carpetbag, the sitter—a traveling musician whom Degas typically caught on the run—effectively makes a cameo appearance in this compelling character study.　
Her brother Désiré, a bassoonist for the Paris Opéra, is the second figure from the left in Degas’s The Ballet from Robert le Diable (29.100.552).

Provenance
the sitter, Marie Dihau, Paris (until 1922; sold on July 19, 1922, for Fr 35,000 to Durand-Ruel); [Durand-Ruel, Paris, 1922; stock no. 12052; sold on November 2, 1922 to Durand-Ruel, New York]; [Durand-Ruel, New York, 1922–23; stock no. 4765; sold on January 16, 1923 to Havemeyer]; Mrs. H. O. (Lousine W.) Havemeyer, New York (1923–d. 1929; cat., 1931, p. 115)

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