How you can use this image

This image can be used for non-commercial research or private study purposes, and other UK exceptions to copyright permitted to users based in the United Kingdom under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, as amended and revised. Any other type of use will need to be cleared with the rights holder(s).

Review the copyright credit lines that are located underneath the image, as these indicate who manages the copyright (©) within the artwork, and the photographic rights within the image.

The collection that owns the artwork may have more information on their own website about permitted uses and image licensing options.

Review our guidance pages which explain how you can reuse images, how to credit an image and how to find images in the public domain or with a Creative Commons licence available.

Buy a print or image licence

You can purchase this reproduction

If you have any products in your basket we recommend that you complete your purchase from Art UK before you leave our site to avoid losing your purchases.

Order a print

Notes

Add or edit a note on this artwork that only you can see. You can find notes again by going to the ‘Notes’ section of your account.

Elena Carafa was Degas’s first cousin. Her mother, Stefanina, the Duchessa Montejasi-Cicerale, was the youngest sister of Degas’s father. Like many members of Degas’s family they lived in Naples, which Degas himself returned to in the winter of 1873–4, when he accompanied his dying father there. He was in Naples again in 1875 for the funeral of an uncle.

This portrait was either painted during one of these visits – being in mourning may explain Elena’s black dress – or when Elena was in Paris. Degas had previously painted Elena with her younger sister, Camilla, around 1865–8. In that portrait, she also looks directly at us.

Degas originally planned to show Elena facing towards the right, with a more pensive look. In the finished painting, he turned her face and upper body to the left so that she looks at us directly.

The National Gallery, London

London

Title

Portrait of Elena Carafa

Date

about 1875

Medium

Oil on canvas

Measurements

H 70.1 x W 55 cm

Accession number

NG4167

Acquisition method

Bought, 1926

Work type

Painting

The National Gallery, London

Trafalgar Square, London, Greater London WC2N 5DN England

View venue

Artist or maker

Edgar Degas

1834–1917

View profile

The Ballet Scene from Meyerbeer's Opera 'Robert le Diable' Victoria and Albert Museum
Horse Tied to a Tree The Burrell Collection
In the Tuileries, Woman with a Parasol The Burrell Collection
The Rehearsal The Burrell Collection
Grand Arabesque, First Time Glasgow Museums Resource Centre (GMRC)
La rentrée du troupeau Leicester Museum & Art Gallery
Girl Looking through Field Glasses The Burrell Collection
74 more