Portrait after a Costume Ball (Portrait of Madame Dietz Monnin)

Edgar Degas executed this portrait of Madame Adèle Dietz-Monnin in 1879, accepting the commission due to financial difficulties. Letters attest to frequent sittings in the spring of 1879 as Degas worked to capture how light fell across the sitter in the context of a brightly lit ball surrounded by reflective surfaces.

The unusual title came when Degas exhibited the work at the Fourth Impressionist Exhibition in April-May 1879. According to family tradition, Madame Dietz-Monnin rejected the finished portrait because she thought it made her look drunk or like a prostitute. The work was originally intended as payment for money lent to Degas by members of her family.

Degas executed the painting in an unusual combination of distemper, metallic paint, and pastel on canvas, measuring 85.7 x 75.3 cm. It's now in the Joseph Winterbotham Collection at the Art Institute of Chicago, displayed in Gallery 226.