Portrait of Estelle Balfour

Estelle Musson Balfour, Edgar Degas's cousin from New Orleans, visited France from 1863 to 1865. She was in mourning for her husband, who had been killed at the Battle of Corinth, Mississippi, while fighting on the side of the Confederacy in the Civil War. At the time that this portrait was painted, Mrs. Balfour was going blind. Degas, too, would eventually lose his sight, and this painting explores the experience of seeing those who cannot see.