Madame Lisle and Madame Loubens by Degas in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, December 2023

Title: Madame Lisle and Madame Loubens

Artist: Edgar Degas (French, Paris 1834–1917 Paris)

Date: ca. 1867

Geography: Country of Origin France

Culture: French

Medium: Oil on canvas

Dimensions: 33 1/16 × 38 1/16 in. (84 × 96.6 cm)
Framed: 40 × 45 1/4 × 3 1/8 in., 43 lb. (101.6 × 114.9 × 7.9 cm, 19.5 kg)

Classification: Paintings

Credit Line: The Art Institute of Chicago, Gift of Annie Laurie Ryerson in memory of Joseph Turner Ryerson (1953.335)


Members of the same social circle as Manet and Degas, Madame Lisle and Madame Loubens attended the evening soirees hosted by the Manets and the Morisot family. This dimly lit double portrait may depict them in such a setting. Madame Loubens first sat for Manet in 1862 for his Music in the Tuileries Gardens (National Gallery, London). Degas perhaps drew inspiration from her pose in that work for the present portrait.

Text from: www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/844721