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Stefanina Primicile Carafa, Marchioness of Cicerale and Duchess of Montejasi
Edgar Degas (French, 1834–1917)
c. 1875
- Medium
- oil on fabric
- Classification
- Painting
- Dimensions
- Framed: 67.6 x 58.4 x 6 cm (26 5/8 x 23 x 2 3/8 in.); Unframed: 49 x 39.4 cm (19 5/16 x 15 1/2 in.)
- Culture
- France, 19th century
- Museum
- Cleveland Museum of Art, Modern European Painting and Sculpture
- Credit line
- Bequest of Leonard C. Hanna Jr.
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Teens profiles and older: its museum says too little about what it shows to place it for younger viewers. How works are placed
View at the Cleveland Museum of Art
About this work
Although best remembered for his depictions of ballet dancers and race horses, Degas painted many likenesses of his family members. He probably painted this portrait of his aunt, Stefania Carafa (1819–1901), during an extended visit to Naples, where many of his relatives lived. Described in family papers as a highly indulged, fun-loving child, the duchess grew into the stoic, world-weary woman depicted here. No expensive finery reveals her high social rank; indeed she wears a mourning dress, possibly to observe the recent death of her brother Achille.
