Edmondo and Thérèse Morbilli: The Boston Portrait

Degas Edmond And Therese Morbilli: Introduction

Thérèse Morbilli sits close to her husband Edmondo in this portrait, her hand raised beside her cheek. Edmondo faces forward with one arm resting on the chair at the right. The two figures fill most of the canvas, leaving a narrow view of the room around them. Their poses are separate, yet the overlapping shapes of their bodies bring them into one compact arrangement. ^{[1] [5]}

This is the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston painting Edmondo and Thérèse Morbilli, accession 31.33, dated about 1865. The museum identifies it as oil on canvas. Degas also painted the couple in a different composition now in the National Gallery of Art, Washington. Both museums identify the sitters as Edmondo and Thérèse. ^[1][2]

Edmondo and Thérèse Morbilli at a Glance

• ArtistEdgar Degas (1834–1917)
• Owner and numberMuseum of Fine Arts, Boston, 31.33
• DateAbout 1865
• MediumOil on canvas
• Size116.5 × 88.3 cm in the MFA's 2025 exhibition checklist
• SittersDegas’s sister Thérèse and her husband Edmondo Morbilli
• Distinguishing detailsThérèse’s hand beside her cheek; her pale blue dress; Edmondo’s dark coat and forward position

Contents

1. Introduction
2. At a Glance
3. A Close Double Portrait
4. A Study for the Boston Painting
5. The Different Morbilli Portrait in Washington
6. Collection and Conservation

A Close Double Portrait

The figures are not placed in a formal line across a distant room. Thérèse appears on the left, partly behind Edmondo, while he occupies the right foreground. Her pale clothing and his dark coat produce a strong light-dark division. A yellow-brown area behind Edmondo and the darker field behind Thérèse frame their faces differently. The effect is of two people sharing a space without becoming mirror images. These are visible features; the painting alone does not tell us the private meaning of either expression. ^[1]

Thérèse’s raised hand is an especially prominent detail. It touches her cheek and gives her pose a held, thoughtful quality. Edmondo’s hand and forearm rest much lower, making his seated body appear more settled in the foreground. It may be tempting to turn these gestures into a story about their relationship. The known family connection supports naming the sitters, but it does not make the painting a record of their thoughts on the day they posed. ^[1]

The Museum of Fine Arts identifies the painting as one of a series of portraits Degas made of his sister before and after her 1863 marriage to Edmondo in Naples. Seen in that context, the double portrait is part of a continuing attention to family rather than an isolated experiment. We do not need to assign a fixed psychological diagnosis to Thérèse to notice how intently Degas arranged her face, hand and pale clothing. ^[1]

A Study for the Boston Painting

The Louvre holds a drawing titled Portrait de Thérèse Degas-Morbilli, dated about 1865 and catalogued RF 42663, recto. Its record explicitly identifies it as a study for the double portrait in Boston. This is stronger evidence for a connection than a general resemblance between two images of the same person. It shows that a separate study of Thérèse forms part of the documented preparation for this canvas. ^[3]

A drawing of one sitter does not explain every decision in the finished double portrait. It cannot tell us precisely when Edmondo’s position was fixed or how many other studies were made. It does, however, invite a useful comparison: a head and pose considered on paper becomes one part of a larger relation between two figures, their chairs and the surrounding colours. ^[3]

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The Different Morbilli Portrait in Washington

The National Gallery of Art’s Edmondo and Thérèse Morbilli, 1963.10.125, is also dated about 1865. In that separate canvas, Thérèse wears a broad red shawl and sits at the left of a low sofa; Edmondo perches on the sofa back before a green patterned wall. The National Gallery describes its painting as unfinished, with scraped and rubbed passages around Thérèse. Our Washington portrait page follows that work. ^[2]

Here in the Boston painting, the couple is closer to the viewer, Thérèse’s dress is pale blue and her hand rises beside her face. The backgrounds and furniture are different. Those visual details settle which image belongs on which route, even if old captions vary between “Edmond” and “Edmondo.” Each painting has its own accession and exhibition history. ^[1][2]

Collection and Conservation

The MFA credits the Boston painting as a 1931 gift of Robert Treat Paine, 2nd. This is its own collection history, separate from the Washington picture’s Chester Dale bequest. An MFA conservation programme in 2023 listed the Boston double portrait among paintings being cleaned and studied. Conservation is a reminder that the image seen today also depends on the condition and care of the object. The programme does not by itself justify a claim about particular discoveries from that treatment, so no such claim is made here. ^[1][4]

Return to the close arrangement of the faces. A viewer can follow Thérèse’s pale sleeve and raised hand toward her face, then move across Edmondo’s dark coat and beard. The painting creates connection through proximity and overlap while leaving each sitter separately present. Its documented preparatory drawing and its distinct collection history give this Boston version its own reasons to be examined, alongside but apart from the Washington canvas. ^[1][2][3]

References

1. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Edmondo and Thérèse Morbilli, about 1865, oil on canvas, accession 31.33; object identity and credit corroborated in the museum’s 2025 NGV exhibition checklist, p. 22, and exhibition labels. View source · View source
2. National Gallery of Art, Washington, Edmondo and Thérèse Morbilli, c. 1865, oil on canvas, accession 1963.10.125. View source
3. Louvre, Portrait de Thérèse Degas-Morbilli, about 1865, drawing, RF 42663, recto; owner record identifies the Boston painting as its related work. View source
4. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, “Conservation Up Close: Degas Below the Surface”, 2023. View source
5. Splash image: Edgar Degas, Edmondo and Thérèse Morbilli, about 1865, oil on canvas. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 31.33. Collection record. View source

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