Victoria Dubourg

Victoria Dubourg by Edgar Degas is a finely executed graphite drawing created sometime between 1861 and 1871. This intimate portrait study exemplifies the French artist’s exceptional skill in rendering human subjects with immediacy and psychological depth. During this decade, Degas was moving away from historical painting and focusing intensely on realist portraiture and contemporary scenes, often using friends and family as models. The precise yet delicate application of graphite allowed Degas to quickly capture the sitter’s likeness while experimenting with form and shadow, characteristic of the preparatory works he undertook before embarking on larger oil compositions.

The subject, Victoria Dubourg (1840-1926), was herself a noted painter, primarily known for still lifes and floral studies, and was the wife of the artist Henri Fantin-Latour. This connection places the drawing within the vibrant circle of Parisian artists that Degas frequented, illustrating the social and artistic milieu of France in the mid-nineteenth century. This drawing serves not only as a record of a colleague but also as an important document illustrating Degas’s evolving technique in draftsmanship before his major Impressionist breakthroughs later in the 1870s.

Today, this significant example of nineteenth-century French drawing resides in the permanent collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art. As with many preparatory studies by the master, its detail and economy of line offer invaluable insight into Degas’s creative process. Works of this period are often digitized by institutions, allowing the wider public access to high-resolution files, making quality Victoria Dubourg prints accessible via the public domain.