Study for “Madame Théodore Gobillard” (Yves Morisot)

Study for “Madame Théodore Gobillard” (Yves Morisot) by Edgar Degas, created around 1869, is an intimate preparatory drawing executed in graphite. This crucial work serves as a foundational study for a subsequent oil portrait, capturing the essential features and posture of the sitter with careful observational skill. Classified strictly as a drawing, this piece demonstrates Degas’s evolving technique in the late 1860s, a period when he began to integrate the candid, unposed realism of contemporary life into traditional portraiture.

Degas employed subtle applications of graphite on paper, utilizing delicate, precise lines to define the structural contours of the face and employing heavier, focused shading to suggest the volume of the hair and the fall of the clothing. The subject is Yves Morisot (1838-1893), who had married Théodore Gobillard, making her the cousin of the celebrated Impressionist painter Berthe Morisot, a close acquaintance of Degas. This work, focusing on a woman within the artist’s immediate social circle, encapsulates the artist’s deep commitment to realism in depicting the Parisian bourgeoisie.

The piece provides valuable insight into Degas's meticulous process for developing his oil paintings. The resulting image is less concerned with achieving a high degree of finish and more focused on capturing the immediate vitality and psychological presence of the sitter, a characteristic feature in his many successful portraits. This highly refined graphite study resides in the esteemed collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. For works of such historical significance, documentation and the creation of detailed prints were essential for disseminating recognition of masterworks like the Study for “Madame Théodore Gobillard” (Yves Morisot) throughout the art world.