Degas probably painted this portrait of the daughter of his friend Paul Valpinçon (see Degas Carriage at the Races, no. 13) in late 1871 while visiting the family at their country home in Ménil-Hubert, Normandy, during the time that Paris was being ravaged by the destructive turmoil of the Commune. "His friendship for the Valpinçons seems to have been comfortingly separate from his life in Paris... To Henri Lerolle, a good friend, Degas wrote during a visit in 1884: 'I must tell you that I too am near Vimoutiers, at the home of a childhood friend.' In all likelihood this friendship was just that, a habit from childhood, without any intellectual stimulus but with certain and constant affection from all members of Paul Valpinçon's family" (Jean Sutherland Boggs, Portraits by Degas, Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1962, p. 37).

This work reflects an awareness of the compositional techniques of Japanese prints, characteristic also noted in Carriage at the Races. Here, however, the influence is apparent in the numerous patterned surfaces that appear to belong in a single visual plane, thereby flattening the picture space. While increasing abstraction and flatness are characteristic of Impressionist developments of the early seventies, the avant-garde formal interests of the painting of Hortense Valpinçon have been subordinated to the purpose of portraiture. Hortense is placed in the midst of randomly collected patterns in a shallow space. Degas seems to have intended an allusion to the unformed, piecemeal experiences of childhood, as reflected in the various patterns that are everywhere incomplete or vague.

The section of apple that Hortense holds in her right hand is thought to have been a bribe for the sitter: "We know through a recollection of Madame Jacques Fourchy, Hortense, née Valpinçon, that Degas had given her four quarters of an apple to serve as a reward for good behaviour during the sitting" (The Bulletin of the Minneapolis Institute of Arts XXXVII/10 [March 6, 1948], p. 46-47). However, the purpose of the apple probably extends beyond the need to have Hortense stand quietly; it poses a subtle iconographic possibility that cannot be ignored. Degas, well aware of traditional symbolism, may have intended the apple to suggest that his young girl is not far from the knowledge that will separate her from the random, innocent experiences of childhood.

The off-center composition and the abrupt cropping recall A Woman with Chrysanthemums (no. 10) and the passage from Duranty's La Nouvelle Peinture... cited in the entry for that picture. Furthermore, the interest in two-dimensional patterns and the shallow space anticipate similar compositional interests in the "intimiste" portraits by Vuillard of twenty years later.

The curious broken black line running down Hortense's back apparently indicates a contemplated change by Degas. Again, a recollection by Madame Fourchy provides a probable explanation: "It is possible that Degas was not satisfied with the limitation of contour and planned to change it. He frequently did this, for he was that uneasiest of all men, a perfectionist. According to Madame Fourchy [née Hortense Valpinçon], he insisted that he had not finished the portrait but Paul Valpinçon knowing his habit of reworking pictures, declared that it was perfect as it was and took it from him" (The Bulletin of the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, p. 47). The story indicates Paul Valpinçon to have been as astute a collector as his father, Edouard, who is remembered as a collector of works by Ingres, notably the work that bears his name, The Bather of Valpinçon (Musée du Louvre).

Lent by the Minneapolis Institute of Arts John R. Van Derlip Fund, 1948

Accession Number 48.1 

Provenance:

Paul Valpinçon, Paris; his daughter, the sitter, Mme. Jacques Fourchy; Wildenstein, Paris and New York (before 1948).