The Bellelli Family

The story

“The Bellelli Family” is the first large painting by Edgar Degas. He began it in 1858 in Florence, where he was staying with his aunt Laura, his father's sister, her husband Baron Bellelli and their two daughters. The young artist was 24 years old and made dozens of drawings of each member of the family before starting the canvas.

In “The Bellelli Family” the aunt stands in a black mourning dress, because her father has just died. His portrait hangs on the wall behind her. The two girls in white pinafores are beside her: one stands calmly, the other sits on a chair with one leg tucked under her. The father sits on the right, with his back to us, turned towards the fireplace. Between him and his wife there seems to be an invisible wall.

Edgar Degas does not paint a happy family but a real one, with the tension that fills the room. The Bellellis' marriage was not happy, and the painting shows it without a single word: each is in a world of their own. The reflection in the mirror, the little dog in the corner and the blue wallpaper with flowers make the scene even more alive.

Degas finished the painting years later in Paris and showed it at the Salon in 1867. It remained in his studio until the end of his life. Around the same time he became friends with Edouard Manet, who was also looking for a new way to paint the people of his time.

Today “The Bellelli Family” is in the Musée d'Orsay in Paris. The museum bought it in 1918, shortly after the death of Edgar Degas. It is enormous, nearly 2 by 2.5 metres, and shows that from the very beginning the young artist saw in people what they tried to hide.