Signed upper left: Degas. 1867.

Joséphine Gaujelin (or Gozelin) was a dancer at the Opéra in Paris and later an actor at the Théâtre du Gymnase. Degas used her as a model on several occasions, for example as a ballerina in his Classe de danse (Metropolitan Museum of Art). In this portrait, she appears in street clothes, sitting in her dressing room. Wrapped entirely in black, she sits rigidly, with arms clenched to her sides. The dour expression and reserved demeanor belie her reputation as a charismatic beauty. The portrait is almost deliberately unglamorous, although the intensity of the sitter’s gaze is compelling, if not disconcerting to some viewers. Gaujelin, who had commissioned the portrait, rejected it. However, Degas exhibited it in the Paris Salon of 1869 (titled Portrait de Mme G…). Mrs. Gardner heard that Gaujelin was angry that it was coming to America.

Isabella Stewart Gardner was not a collector of Impressionism, but Degas was an exception, undoubtedly because of his serious attention to historical painting. She may have seen his paintings at the Chicago World’s Columbian Exhibition in 1893. In addition to this portrait, Mrs. Gardner also owned a drawing of a ballet dancer and four other drawings.

Source: Richard Lingner, "Portrait of Joséphine Gaujelin," in Eye of the Beholder, edited by Alan Chong et al. (Boston: ISGM and Beacon Press, 2003): 195.

The recent refurbishment of the Yellow Room afforded the museum’s conservation department the opportunity to examine and conserve several important paintings. Among them, Edgar Degas’ Portrait of Joséphine Gaujelin was the subject of a meticulous conservation treatment. Acquired by Isabella Gardner in 1904, the painting is prominently displayed on the east wall alongside two seascapes by James McNeill Whistler. Though Degas employed thin paint layers to create the image and the surface texture is smooth, layered paint strokes are evident over much of the surface, resulting in his characteristic blurred softened forms.

The first documented treatment of the painting at the Gardner Museum occurred in 1934–35 when the painting’s surface was lightly cleaned and waxed to reduce bloom in the natural resin varnish. In 1976 the painting was more thoroughly cleaned, re-varnished, and in-painted to correct abrasions from previous restorations. Over the last thirty years the varnish and wax coatings had yellowed and dulled considerably, necessitating the present restoration. The before treatment image illustrates the dulling effect of the aged varnish coating on the paint layers. The sitter’s black dress was particularly dull and gray in appearance.

Examination of the paint surface under ultra-violet light illumination revealed an opaque, pale yellow fluorescence typical of an aged natural resin varnish. The darkened varnish and wax coatings were thinned and removed from the paint surface with cotton swabs dampened with mild solvent. The photograph taken during the conversation treatment documents the lighter areas along the left side of the painting where the varnish was in the process of being removed.

After cleaning, the painting was varnished with a stable and reversible synthetic varnish and minor abrasions were retouched with conservation-grade pigments. The after treatment image illustrates the dramatic improvement achieved through cleaning and varnishing. Note especially the deep saturated appearance of the black dress and reappearance of the white sequins as well as the heightened contrast between the light and dark passages.

Purchased in 1904 from Eugene Glaenzer and Co., New York.