| Artist |
EDGAR DEGAS |
Completed by 1869 and housed in the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the following plate depicts a tense confrontation by lamplight between a man and a partially undressed woman. The theatrical character of the scene has led art historians to seek a literary source for the composition, though none of the sources proposed have met with universal acceptance. Even the painting’s title is uncertain, as some of Degas’ acquaintances referred to it either as Le Viol or Intérieur and it was under the latter title that Degas exhibited it for the first time in 1905 at Galerie Durand-Ruel in Paris. He referred to the canvas in 1897 as “mon tableau de genre” (my genre painting), which suggests that he judged it as anomalous among his works.
In the arrangement of the image, items are placed as if they are props, while dramatic lighting increases the impression that a play is being enacted. Various Naturalist novels have been suggested for the source, including Louis Edmond Duranty’s novel, The Struggle of Francoise Duquesnoy and 3ò4mile Zola’s Thér?se Raquin. The latter novel was published in 1867 and tells the story of a young orphan, whose aunt has forced her to marry her sickly son, Camille Raquin. Thér?se enters into an affair with one of Camille’s friends, Laurent, and the two carry out a plot to murder Camille, staging the death to look like an accident. However, on their wedding night, Thér?se and Laurent find their relationship poisoned by guilt. The passage that has been proposed as corresponding closely to the scene depicted by Degas occurs at the beginning of Chapter 21: “Laurent carefully closed the door behind him and remained there a moment, leaning against it, staring into the room with an anxious, confused expression. A bright fire was burning in the grate, casting golden patches that danced over the ceiling and the walls. The room was thus illuminated by a brilliant, vacillating glow which dimmed the lamp set on a table. Madame Raquin had tried to arrange the room attractively, all white and scented, as though to serve as a nest for young lovers; the old shopkeeper had chosen to add to the bed a few bits of lace and to fill the vases on the mantel with big bouquets of roses. A gentle warmth lingered in the air, with soft odours.”
Another source of the composition may be a lithograph by Paul Gavarni 3ƒ4 sheet number five from the Lorettes series 3ƒ4 published in 1841 in Le Charivari. Degas greatly admired Gavarni’s work, owning a collection of around 2,000 of his lithographs. Gavarni’s scene depicts the woman with her back turned towards the man, who stands in front of the door, his legs spread wide and his hands in his pockets. From above, as if contemplating his victim, his Another source of the composition may be a lithograph by Paul Gavarni 3ƒ4 sheet number five from the Lorettes series 3ƒ4 published in 1841 in Le Charivari. Degas greatly admired Gavarni’s work, owning a collection of around 2,000 of his lithographs. Gavarni’s scene depicts the woman with her back turned towards the man, who stands in front of the door, his legs spread wide and his hands in his pockets. From above, as if contemplating his victim, his gaze is fixed on the woman who, significantly, is seated on an animal-skin rug. Not only is the man’s posture echoed in Degas’ painting, but the woman is also in a comparable pose, her right hand raised to her head, her garment sliding off her shoulder. The pictures on the wall and the discarded clothes on the sofa may well have influenced Degas’ painting as well.
Credit Line:
The Henry P. McIlhenny Collection in memory of Frances P. McIlhenny, 1986
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