Provenance
1The estate of the artist Paris • 1917–1918 Catalogue des tableaux, pastels et dessins par Edgar Degas et provenant de son atelier (1ère vente), Galerie Georges Petit, Paris (6–8 May 1918), no. 151 (ill.).
2Alphonse Kann St-Germain-en-Laye & London • 1918 until [d.] 1948 Acquired at the above sale for FF 15.000, Musée d’Orsay, Documentation, Copy of annotated sale catalogue as above (n. (1); Honderd Jaar Fransche Kunst, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam 1938, no. 111.
3Confiscated by the «Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg» (ERR no. Ka 19), and taken over on behalf of Hermann Göring by Walter Andreas Hofer 12 July 1941 The pastel bears on its back the inscription «Ka 19», the number given by the ERR to the confiscated pictures from the Kann collection. This inscription allows its identification in the Kann inventory, Barch Koblenz B323 273, p. 79.
4Traded to Galerie Fischer in exchange for works of art Lucerne • 22 October 1941 Esther Tisa Francini etc., Fluchtgut, Raubgut, Der Transfer von Kulturgütern in und über die Schweiz 1933–1945 und die Frage der Restitution, Unabhängige Expertenkommission Schweiz–Zweiter Weltkrieg (ed.), Zurich 2001, p. 286 (n. *1). According to the report CIR#2 (The Goering Collection) of the Art Looting Investigation Unit (ALIU), p. 130, quoted in Nancy H. Yeide, Beyond the Dreams of Avarice, The Hermann Goering Collection, Dallas 2009, no. D47, «Ka19» was part of the same lot as the Manet, Toilette, also confiscated from the Kann collection («Ka 20»), which was brought to Lucerne on 22 October 1941 and subsequently purchased by Bührle (Emil Bührle Collection, Inv. 65). The Degas pastel («Ka19») remained unsold with Fischer until the end of the war.
5Recovered at Galerie Fischer and transferred to the Kunstmuseum Bern 1945 Archive Kunstmuseum Bern, Copy of a letter from Theodor Fischer, Lucerne, to Eidgenössisches Politisches Departement, Abteilung für Auswärtiges, Bern, 10 November 1945, declaring willingness to deposit 37 works by French Impressionists which remained unsold with the gallery in Lucerne at the Kunstmuseum Bern; the present picture is no. 11 in the attached list; Letter from Theodor Fischer, Lucerne, to Max Huggler, Director of the Kunstmuseum, Bern, 16 November 1945, accompanying the shipment of the above works.
6Restituted to the estate of Alphonse Kann London & Paris • 7 July 1949 Swiss Federal Court, Lausanne, Kammer zur Beurteilung von Raubgutklagen, Verdict of 7 July 1949, regarding the request for restitution of pictures by the estate of Alphonse Kann vs. Theodor Fischer, ordering the restitution of the claimed pictures, including Degas, Femme s’essuyant. The copy of this verdict kept in the Archive of the Kunstmuseum Bern has handwritten notes in pencil with the listed works by Degas; Archive Kunstmuseum Bern, List of paintings shipped to Messrs. Vandercom, Stanton & Co., Solicitors, 35 Spring Gardens, Trafalgar Square, London S.W.1., 23 July 1949, the present pastel being no. 11.
7Dr. Fritz Nathan St. Gall • by 1951 AStEGB, Entry Book I, 6 June 1951; Letter from Dr. Arthur Kauffmann, London, to Emil Bührle, 26 April 1951, regarding Madame Camus by Degas, then in Kauffmann’s safe deposit, and containing a passage which most probably relates to the present pastel from the Kann estate.
8Emil Bührle Zurich • 6 June 1951 until [d.] 28 November 1956 Acquired from the above, Entry book as above, n. (7), with reference to date of purchase.
9Given by the heirs of Emil Bührle to the Foundation E.G. Bührle Collection, Zurich • 1960 Inv. 33.
AStEGB = Archive of the Foundation
E.G. Bührle Collection, Zurich
