A Cotton Office In New Orleans

A Cotton Office in New Orleans is an oil painting by Edgar Degas and one of the most important images of 19th-century capitalism. The 1873 painting was the first one by Degas to be purchased by a Museum. This painting portrays his uncle’s cotton brokerage business when it went bankrupt during an economic crash.

Here, Degas’ Uncle, Musson, is seen groping the quality of raw cotton, while Degas’ brother Achille is resting against a window at the left. His brother Rene is reading a newspaper while several other people go about their activities.

Degas had traveled with his brother Rene in late 1872 from Europe to New Orleans to visit his uncle Michael Musson. Degas was to travel back to Europe in January 1873 but his trip was delayed.

He therefore decided to paint A-Cotton-Office-in-New-Orleans with the intention of selling it later to a British textile manufacturer. The hope of selling the artwork was ended after there was a decline in art and cotton market. Later on in 1873, in the 2nd Impressionist show in Paris, he exhibited the painting and then sold it in 1878 to the Museum of Fine Arts (Musee des Beaux-Arts in French) in Pau, France.

A Cotton Office in New Orleans is an 1873 oil painting by Edgar Degas. In it, Degas depicts the moment when his uncle Michel Musson's cotton brokerage business went bankrupt in an economic crash, according to Michael McMahon of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. The firm was swamped by the postwar growth of the much larger Cotton Exchange. In the painting, Musson is seen examining raw cotton for its quality while Degas' brother Rene reads The Daily Picayune. It carried the bankruptcy news. Another brother, Achille, rests against a window wall at left while others, including Musson's partners, go about their business.
A Cotton Office in New Orleans was the first painting by Degas to be purchased by a museum, and the first by an Impressionist. Degas' sale of the piece marked a turning point in his career as he moved from being a struggling, unrecognized artist to a recognized and financially stable artist, according to Marilyn Brown in her book Degas and the Business of Art: A Cotton Office in New Orleans.
Degas traveled from Europe to New Orleans in late 1872 with his brother, René, to visit his mother's brother, Michael Musson. After the American Civil War, René had joined his uncle's cotton factor firm in New Orleans. Degas was to return to Europe in January 1873, but when his return trip was delayed, he decided to paint the cotton business surrounding him.
Degas crafted his work with the intent of selling it to a British textile manufacturer. But a drop in stock prices worldwide and declines in the cotton and art markets ended his hopes for that specific sale.Degas then exhibited A Cotton Office in New Orleans in the second Impressionist show in Paris in 1876. Degas finally sold the painting in 1878 to the newly founded Musee des Beaux-Arts in Pau, France.
The painting is sometimes mistakenly referred to as The Cotton Exchange at New Orleans, referring to the historic New Orleans Cotton Exchange.

Edgar Degas(Artist):

was born Hillarie-German-Edgar de Gas on July 19, 1834, in Paris, France. His father, August, was a banker, and his mother, Celestine, was an American from New Orleans. In 1853, at the age of 18, he received permission to "copy" at the Louvre in Paris.