Portrait of Estelle Balfour

Description Estelle Musson Balfour (1843-1909), the artist's cousin from New Orleans, visited France in 1863-65. She was in mourning for her husband, who had been killed at the Battle of Corinth, Mississippi, while fighting on the side of the Confederacy in the Civil War. At the time that this portrait was painted, Mrs. Balfour was going blind. Degas, too, would eventually lose his sight, and this painting explores the experience of seeing those who cannot see.

Conservation

Date	Description	Narrative
4/01/1942	Treatment	cleaned; mounted; loss compensation; other
10/22/1951	Treatment	cleaned; loss compensation
3/21/1960	Treatment	loss compensation; re-housed
4/19/1965	Treatment	loss compensation
6/01/1971	Treatment	cleaned
6/01/1971	Treatment	other
1/11/1982	Examination	examined for condition.
6/13/1990	Treatment	repaired; loss compensation; cleaned
12/28/1998	Examination	examined for condition
1/01/1999	Treatment	mounted; cleaned; loss compensation; re-housed; other

Exhibitions

• From Ingres to Gauguin: French Nineteenth Century Paintings Owned in Maryland. Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore. 1951.
• An Exhibition of Works by Edgar Hilaire Germain Degas, 1934-1917. Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles. 1958.
• Works by Edgar Degas. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland. 1947.
• Degas. Marion Koogler McNay Art Institute, San Antonio. 1955.
• Degas. Wildenstein & Company, New York. 1960.
• Manet, Degas, Morisot and Cassatt. Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore. 1962.
• A Baltimorean in Paris: George A. Lucas, 1860-1909. The Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore. 1979.
• Before Monet: Landscape Painting in France and Impressionist Masters: Highlights from The Walters Collection. The Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore. 1998.
• Degas and New Orleans: A French Impressionist in America. New Orleans Museum of Art, New Orleans; Ordrupgaard, Charlottenlund. 1999.
• Faces of Impressionism: Portraits from American Collections. Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore; The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Houston; The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland. 1999-2000.
• A Magnificent Age: Masterpieces from the Walters Art Museum, Baltimore. The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore; The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City; Mint Museum of Art, Charlotte. 2002-2004.
• Degas/Cassatt. National Gallery of Art, Washington. 2014.

Provenance Mary Cassatt, Paris [date and mode of acquisition unknown]; Henry Walters, Baltimore, May 7, 1903, by purchase [together with Monet's Springtime, G. A. Lucas account Book, ms.]; Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.

Inscriptions [Signature] In light brown at lower right: Degas

Credit Acquired by Henry Walters, 1903