L.P. Auguste H. De Gas
(Edgar Degas’s father)
Born: 8/19/1807
Naples, Italy
Died: 2/23/1874
Naples, Italy
Musson De Gas
(Edgar Degas’s mother)
Born: 4/10/1815
New Orleans, LA
Died: 9/5/1847
New Orleans, LA
Fig.3. Anonymous miniaturist,
Célestine De Gas, ca.1832-34
Fig.4. Anonymous miniaturist,
Célestine De Gas, ca.1832-34
Youngest daughter of Germain Musson and Marie Céleste Rillieux, Marie-Célestine Musson was born in New Orleans in 1815. She married L.P. Auguste-Hyacinthe De Gas in 1832 and had five children while living in both Paris and Naples. Auguste’s father, René-Hilaire Degas
owned a banking firm in Naples; Auguste opened a small branch in Paris.
The first, born in Paris in 1834, was Edgar-Germain-Hilaire, the artist (middle names after his grandfathers: Germain Musson and René-Hilaire Degas.) Achille, the second son, was born in Paris in 1838. In 1840, Thérese, was born in Naples, followed by their second daughter, Marguerite in 1842. The last son, René, was born in 1845 in Paris. Two years later their mother died, when Edgar was only thirteen.
In 1866, René (Edgar's youngest brother) arranged a loan from his father’s bank to start his own business with brother Achille in New Orleans. A succession of crop failures and a period of corruption in the city which led to bankruptcy affected their finances. René was never able to pay back the loan to his father. Edgar and his family were forced to liquidate the De Gas bank in 1872. After the death of Edgar’s father, Auguste De Gas, in 1874, the De Gas family was sued by the Banque d'Anvers, which won the suit. Edgar and Fevre, Edgar's brother-in-law, had to pay installments for René's debts so as not to endanger the family name. He was now forced to earn money by selling his works. In his letters written in 1876-1877, he begins to mention the "troubles of all kind with which I am burdened;" he complains about the necessity to "earn my rotten life." 1
*Auguste De Gas changed the spelling of his last name from
"Degas" to "De Gas," to indicate nobility.
The De Gas patent of nobility is false, because the family was descended from bankers.
Edgar Degas was the only child in the family to revert to the original spelling "Degas," avoiding the pretense to nobility, before he reached forty.
Fig. 5.
La Famille De Gas,
Patent of Nobility
Collection of Edmund B.Martin, Jr. to Tulane University.
Edgar Germaine
Hilaire Degas, the artist
Born: 7/19/1834
Paris, France
Died: 9/17/1917
Paris, France
Fig. 7. A detail of
Marie-Thérese Havie De Gas
by Degas, 1865, Oil on canvas,
Collection of Walter Feilchenfeldt,
Zurich, Leniusube 132
Born: 1840, Naples, Italy
Died: 1912
Fig. 6. Achille De Gas
in Uniform as a Cadet
by Degas, 1859-62,
oil on canvas,
Chester Dale Collection,
National Gallery of Art,
Washington, D.C.
Born: 1838, Paris, France
Died: 1893, Paris, France
Fig. 8. Laure-Marguerite De Gas
by Degas, 1868, oil on canvas,
Private collection. Leniusube 185
Born: 1842, Paris, France
Died: 1895
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Fig. 9.
Jean Baptiste René De Gas
by Degas, 1861, Etching
New Orleans Museum of Art,
Museum purchase through the Ella West Freeman Foundation Matching Fund
Born: 5/6/1845, Paris, France
Died: 4/30/1921, Paris, France
1 Reprinted from John Rewald, “Degas and His Family in New Orleans,” in Gazette des Beaux-Arts, August 1946, Vol. ?, No. ?, page 123.
An original copy with a note signed and dated:
“For Mr. Gaston Musson with the expression of my very deep gratitude for his precious and untiring help.
John Rewald, N.Y., Jan. 1947”
Collection of Edmund B. Martin, Jr.
Fig. 3 & 4. Degas and New Orleans: A French Impressionist in American, 1999, New Orleans Museum of Art, page 106.
Fig. 5. Reprinted from John Rewald, “Degas and His Family in New Orleans,” in Gazette des Beaux-Arts, August 1946, Vol. ?, No. ?, cover.
Fig. 6. Degas and New Orleans: A French Impressionist in American, 1999, New Orleans Museum of Art, page 7.
Fig. 7. Degas and New Orleans: A French Impressionist in American, 1999, New Orleans Museum of Art, page 120-121.
Fig. 8. Degas and New Orleans: A French Impressionist in American, 1999, New Orleans Museum of Art, page 117.
Fig. 9. Degas and New Orleans: A French Impressionist in American, 1999, New Orleans Museum of Art, page 112-113.