Edgar Degas (Paris, 1834 - 1917, Paris)
Joséphine Gaujelin, 1867
Oil on canvas, 61.2 x 45.7 cm (24 1/8 x 18 in.)
This vertical, oil on canvas painting shows a light-skinned woman sitting in a large chair inside a yellow-painted room. In the center of the painting is Joséphine, who is wearing an all black long dress. The dress covers everything but her head and hands. We cannot see her neck, because it is wrapped in a black scarf. If we look closely, there are white specks in the deep black of the dress. Her dark brown hair is tied tightly back from her face and shoulders and there is a wreath of golden grapes on her head. There seems to be a gray and red fabric on the back of her head. Her lips are closed, and a light pink, while her eyebrows are thin and black. Her eyes are a light brown, and are looking towards us, but not directly at you. Her hands are clasped in her lap. She has long black earrings on that almost look like lace.
The chair Joséphine is sitting on is white with horizontal lines, resembling a damask fabric. Surrounding her are colorful red, green, and blue cushions with an ogival pattern. At the top right corner of the chair there is a blot of black paint, perhaps meant to be fabric draped over the chair. The walls of the room are a mustard yellow. At the top left corner there are black painted letters reading, “Degas, 1867”. On our left side there’s a white mirror above a white dresser that has ruffled designs around the mirror. In the mirror we can see the reflection of what seems to look like a curtain, but it is merely a few haphazard brush strokes. On top of the dresser seems to be a brown jewelry box that has a green object on top of it. There is a dark yellow fabric on top of it as well that seems to be covering something. The painting is nestled in an ornate gilded wooden frame with vines and bouquets.
Yellow Room
Commentary
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.
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.