Degas’s subject for this portrait was Blanche Camus, a delicate and intelligent woman, who was acknowledged as an accomplished pianist. Blanche Camus and her husband, Gustave Émile Camus, a respected physician and art collector, often socialized with Degas at the home of his father Auguste. Blanche and Gustave Camus were part of the inner circle of family, friends, and acquaintances on whom Degas relied as subjects for the numerous portraits he produced during the late 1860s and 1870s. Degas represented Blanche Camus twice, in 1869 and 1870.