Wine, Jazz, and History
How New Orleans' Degas House Attracts Crowds.
By Sharon McDonnell | Online Only | Oct. 26, 2009
Every month in New Orleans, crowds stream in and out of a handsome 1852 house with a French flag on Esplanade Avenue. Some come for the French Impressionist art, others come for the live bands playing Latin or German music, others come for the wine tastings.
Degas House, the only known home or studio of Edgar Degas that is open to the public, has rebounded after suffering water damage from Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Today the house offers a rich program of activities designed to lure both art lovers and the general public to the National Register-listed property. In December, the inn will host weekly dinners, complete with a guest appearance by an actor playing Degas.
Degas considered himself "almost" a son of New Orleans because both his mother, Celestine Musson, and grandmother, Marie Rillieux, were born in the city. "Louisiana must be respected by all her children," he wrote, "of which I am almost one." During a five-month visit in 1872-3, Degas lived in the Esplanade Ave. house, which his uncle, cotton merchant Michael Musson, was renting.
At the time of his New Orleans visit, Degas was the 38-year-old heir to a banking fortune. "It was a time of transition, almost a midlife crisis," says Christopher Benfey, author of "Degas in New Orleans" and a professor of literature at Mount Holyoke College. "When he came to New Orleans, he was searching for his identity as a painter."
He painted more than 20 artworks in the house, including the first painting he ever sold to a museum: "A Cotton Office in New Orleans," now in the Municipal Museum of Pau, France. His portrait of a cousin, Estelle Musson Degas, is owned by the New Orleans Museum of art, and "Cotton Merchants in New Orleans" is part of the collection of the Fogg Museum at Harvard University.
Restoring Degas House
David Villarrubia purchased the house in 1993, renovating and converting it to a B&B filled with antiques and Degas reproductions. His efforts, financed with private funds, won an award from the Louisiana Preservation Alliance (now the Louisiana Trust for Historic Preservation), in 1996.
"[Degas House] was a run-down tenement house with faded yellow shingles, which suffered more than neglect, and termite damage," says Villarrubia, a retired Delta Air Lines pilot who thoroughly researched a drawing and floor plan of the house and gardens filed in the city's notarial archives. Originally built in Greek Revival style, the residence was redone in the Italianate style when it became a girls' school after the Mussons moved out in 1880. Villarrubia also purchased the house next door, where Degas' studio was located. Originally part of the mansion, it was moved about 50 feet away in 1920 so the two structures could be sold separately.
Villarrubia has launched the Edgar Degas Foundation, which works to educate the public about Degas' accomplishments in New Orleans, and to preserve his legacy. The foundation has also produced a film about Degas and the Crescent City, interviewing art experts and historians, and quoting from Degas' letters to his family.
Degas Lives Here
The Degas House's owner plans to offer a sit-down dinner followed by an actor's monologue. “When dessert is served, Edgar will appear,” says David Villiarrubia, who has owned the house since 1993. “Where else would he be except here, in the only house in the world where he lived and painted?”
Post-Katrina, Degas House won $70,000 in Historic Recovery Grants from the Louisiana State Office of Historic Preservation to repair damage to brick piers beneath both houses. The house also won a $30,000 grant from the French Heritage Society, a nonprofit responsible for helping restore more than 450 historic buildings, chateaux, churches, and gardens in France and the United States.
"Degas House is one of many significant undertakings [benefiting from] our Katrina Heritage Rescue Campaign, which also helped the Ursuline Convent, an 18th-century New Orleans convent and the oldest building in the Mississippi Valley, and Laura Plantation, a Creole plantation outside the city, in partnership with the National Trust," Jessica London, executive director of the French Heritage Society's New York office, wrote in an e-mail. "It's representative of our commitment to preserve French heritage in America as well as France, and foster friendship between both countries."
Next Steps
As part of phase two of the restoration, which began in 1998 and is still under way, Villarrubia plans to install a wrought-iron fence in front of Degas House so it more closely resembles the original drawing, and shutters for storm protection and security. He's eager to marshal community support to restore the facade of the adjacent house containing Degas' studio, particularly since his proposal to reunite both houses was defeated a few years ago by the New Orleans Historic District Landmarks Commission. He's also seeking a professional to create a detailed timeline of Degas artworks next to their reproductions.
Meanwhile, his Degas Foundation is hosting a steady series of fundraising events to draw the broadest possible audience to the house.
After all, Villarrubia says, "The best way to educate is through entertainment."
IF YOU GO … A traveling Louisiana State Museum exhibit chronicling the influence of New Orleans on Degas is on display at Degas House through Jan. 2010. To view the exhibit, call (504) 821-5009.
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