The collection of Baron Denys Cochin

• 

  Degas

  Woman with an Umbrella (Berthe Jeantaud)

  vers 1876 · Canvas, 61 × 50 cm

  National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa ↗

  See in the collection

  A young woman facing us, black hat and fur collar, light coat, a closed umbrella in her hand: lot 6 of the third Degas studio sale at the Galerie Georges Petit on 7, 8 and 9 April 1919, “Buste de jeune femme”, a canvas of 61 by 50^[1]. Denys Cochin bought it there for 7,000 francs, twelve days after his own sale, “Degas’ personal friend”, says the museum, which takes the sitter to be Berthe Jeantaud, the painter’s friend^[2]. Radiographs show a first woman in black beneath, whose left arm can still be made out in the middle of the coat^[2].

  In his hands: Came in April 1919, at the Vente Degas, Georges Petit, 7,000 F · Left, to Hector Brame

  Today: At the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa, 15838, bought in 1969 from the Galerie Walter Feilchenfeldt in Zurich; the museum follows it from Denys Cochin to Hector Brame, to Paul Cassirer in Amsterdam in August 1929, to the banker Arthur Sachs from 1929 to 1968, whose name remains on two labels on the stretcher^[2].

  Photograph from the National Gallery of Canada reproduced by the Art Contrarian blog in 2018; work in the public domain. The plate of the third Degas studio sale, April 1919, lot 6, is on Gallica

  Sources (2)

  1. 1.Catalogue des tableaux, pastels et dessins par Edgar Degas et provenant de son atelier, 3e vente, Galerie Georges Petit, 7-9 avril 1919, n° 6 (Gallica, vue 24), n° 6, vue 24.

     Book or article · read in full, 7 October 2026 · view ↗

     « 6. Buste de jeune femme. Toile. Haut. 0m61. Larg. 0m50. »

  2. 2.Musée des beaux-arts du Canada, Ottawa, collection en ligne, Edgar Degas, Woman with an Umbrella (Berthe Jeantaud), vers 1876, 15838 : notice, marques, provenance et notes, notice, provenance et notes.

     Reference work · read in full, 7 October 2026 · view ↗

     « Woman with an Umbrella (Berthe Jeantaud), c. 1876. Oil on canvas, 61 x 50.2 cm. Purchased 1969. Accession number 15838. Radiographs reveal that this composition was painted over the figure of a woman dressed in black. The sitter is probably the artist’s friend Berthe Jeantaud. Provenance: Atelier Degas, Paris; 1919/04/07-09, Baron Denys Cochin (1851–1922), Paris, purchased from Atelier Degas; Hector-Henri-Clément Brame, Paris; 1929/08/02, Galerie Paul Cassirer, Amsterdam; c. 1929/1930–1968, Arthur Sachs, Paris and Philadelphia; 1968, Galerie Walter Feilchenfeldt, Zürich; 1969/06/18, National Gallery of Canada. Notes: Denys Cochin, politician, art collector and Degas’ personal friend, purchased the painting at Degas’ atelier sale; the sale price in the catalogue is noted as Fr. 7000. Lemoisne no. 463; Boggs 1988, cat. no. 147. »