The Bellelli Sisters

Buy Art Prints Now
from Amazon

* As an Amazon Associate, and partner with Google Adsense and Ezoic, I earn from qualifying purchases.

Degas Giovanna And Giulia Bellelli: Introduction

Two young women stand close together but face in different directions in Edgar Degas's The Bellelli Sisters (Giovanna and Giuliana Bellelli). The sister at left looks toward us, her hands held together in front of a dark dress. The one at right turns her head away. Striped wallpaper and the edge of an upholstered chair make the interior feel close around them. The Los Angeles County Museum of Art owns this oil on canvas as M.46.3.3 and dates it to 1865–66. ^{[1] [5]}

The women were Degas's cousins, daughters of Gennaro Bellelli and Degas's aunt Laure de Gas Bellelli. They had also appeared as children in his much larger Bellelli Family portrait. This later, two-person canvas focuses on the sisters without their parents. LACMA names the younger sitter Giuliana; other collection records call her Giulia. Both names refer to the same Bellelli daughter in these works. ^[1][2][3]

The work at a glance

• ArtistEdgar Degas (1834–1917)
• Owner titleThe Bellelli Sisters (Giovanna and Giuliana Bellelli)
• Date1865–66
• MediumOil on canvas
• Dimensions92.08 × 72.39 cm, canvas
• CollectionLos Angeles County Museum of Art, M.46.3.3
• Credit lineMr. and Mrs. George Gard De Sylva Collection
• Catalogue cross-referenceMS721

Contents

1. Introduction
2. At a Glance
3. Two figures, two directions
4. Family portraiture after The Bellelli Family
5. Identifying the canvas behind the title

Two figures, two directions

The portrait is carefully divided. Giovanna, on the left, faces nearly forward. Her pale collar and small red accent lift her face and hands out of the black dress. Giuliana, on the right, wears a brown-purple dress and turns into profile. Her head overlaps the striped background but seems to point beyond the edge of the picture. Both are present in the same room, yet Degas does not make them mirror images. Their different orientations give the double portrait its movement. ^[1][2]

Degas keeps the background active. The vertical pattern of the wall rises behind their heads, while a piece of patterned upholstery appears at the left and a chair edge at the right. The furnishings do not tell a story by themselves. They hold the sisters in a domestic setting and prevent the portrait from floating against an empty backdrop. The dark sleeves and skirts make a broad central mass, then the white collars and faces interrupt it. ^[1]

The National Gallery of Victoria's exhibition label identifies Giovanna as the figure at left and Giuliana as the figure at right. It describes the sisters as teenagers and calls their dark dresses half-mourning, following the death of their father, Gennaro, in May 1864. This is a useful historical reading of the clothes, but the painting alone would not establish a precise reason for wearing them. The label also notes the possible influence of daguerreotype photography on the posed pair. That comparison helps explain the stillness and sharply different turns of their heads without claiming Degas copied a specific photograph. ^[2]

Watch: Edgar Degas

Explore his paintings, drawings and sculpture in three short videos.

Degas, The Dance Class

Smarthistory

Look closely at Degas’s off-duty dancers and his unusual view into the rehearsal room.

Watch on YouTube

▶01 · PaintingThe Dance ClassSmarthistory▶02 · DrawingDrawing movementThe Met▶03 · SculptureConserving DegasThe Met

Family portraiture after The Bellelli Family

Degas had spent time with the Bellelli family during his Italian travels. Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen identifies the sisters as daughters of Gennaro and Degas's aunt Laure and describes its own drawing of them as a study related to the family's portrait history. LACMA's painting is a separate later oil, made after Degas had worked on the ambitious four-person Bellelli Family. The sisters are no longer small figures within a household group; they fill the canvas themselves. ^[1][3]

The National Gallery of Victoria suggests that the sisters may have visited Paris for the wedding of Degas's sister Marguerite, giving him another opportunity to portray them. Its label uses cautious language, so the visit should remain a possibility rather than a settled circumstance of this canvas. What is certain from the museum's object line is the painting's date, material, scale and present owner. The portrait stands just over 92 centimetres high—large enough to show the sitters at more than bust length, yet much more concentrated than the expansive family scene. ^[1][2]

There is a tempting contrast between the sisters' expressions: one seems composed and direct, the other withdrawn. The arrangement supports an account of different poses and gazes, but it cannot prove their private feelings. Degas's choice makes each sitter legible as an individual while keeping their family resemblance and matching dress convention in view. The space between the two faces is small; the difference in where they look is large. ^[1]

Identifying the canvas behind the title

The exact LACMA accession matters because several Bellelli works share names. Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen owns Double Portrait of Giovanna and Giulia Bellelli, F II 166 (PK), a pencil-and-charcoal drawing only 29.4 × 22.8 centimetres. It is not the colour oil discussed here. The Musée d'Orsay owns the much larger Bellelli Family, which includes the parents as well as the daughters. No date, medium or collection line should be moved from one object to another merely because all three concern the same family. ^[1][3][4]

LACMA credits the canvas to its Mr. and Mrs. George Gard De Sylva Collection. Its object record gives the title, 1865–66 date and full dimensions. The digital Degas catalogue indexes the double oil portrait as MS721; that shorthand helps cross-reference the work but does not replace the owner record. The Bellelli Sisters names the shared subject, while Giovanna and Giuliana identify the two individual sitters. ^[1]

Look once more at their contrasting turns. Degas does not need a dramatic gesture to distinguish the women. The slight separation of their gazes, set within nearly continuous dark clothing, carries the portrait. It is a family image attentive to two individuals at the moment they are painted together. ^[1][2]

References

1. Los Angeles County Museum of Art, The Bellelli Sisters (Giovanna and Giuliana Bellelli), M.46.3.3, owner title, date, medium, dimensions and credit line. View source
2. National Gallery of Victoria, Degas: A New Vision artwork labels, Bellelli sisters label, p. 52. View source
3. Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Double Portrait of Giovanna and Giulia Bellelli, F II 166 (PK), family relationship and distinct drawing. View source
4. Musée d'Orsay, Portrait de famille (La famille Bellelli), RF 2210, separate four-person portrait. View source
5. Edgar Degas, The Bellelli Sisters (Giovanna and Giuliana Bellelli), 1865–1866, oil on canvas. Los Angeles County Museum of Art, M.46.3.3. Collection record. View source

Related DEGAS Paintings

Dance Class

The Ballet from Robert le Diable

Orchestra Musicians

The Millinery Shop

On the Racecourse

Dancers Backstage

A Woman Seated beside a Vase of Flowers

Portrait of James Tissot