Alice Villette

By this point in his career, Degas had abandoned historical scenes to portray activities of modern urban life. This portrait, painted in his studio on the rue Blanche in Paris, depicts his friend Alice Villette in front of a large window overlooking the cityscape. The composition relies on a conceit of portraiture dating to the Renaissance that uses a window to expand the picture plane through perspective. Degas upends this tradition by depicting an independent view of the city in each window pane, defying the viewer’s expectation to see a continuous, defined landscape in the background. The progressively sketchy quality of these views through panes from left to right prohibits an expansion of the space within the portrait, flattening it instead so that the sitter is pushed into a close confrontation with the viewer.