Désiré Dihau

Désiré Dihau
Les Vieilles Histoires... Pour toi ! Portrait of Désiré Dihau (1893) Lithograph by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
Born	Désiré Hippolyte Dihau 2 August 1833 Lille
Died	20 August 1909(1909-08-20) (aged 76) Paris
Occupation(s)	Bassoonist Composer

Désiré Dihau (2 August 1833 – 20 August 1909) was a French

For the cover of the Vieilles Histoires, subtitled "répertoire mondain", a collection of poems by

Toulouse-Lautrec also painted two portraits of Désiré Dihau in 1890 and 1891: the first, simply titled Désire Dihau, shows Dihau sitting three-quarter back, reading a newspaper;[10] The second, entitled Monsieur Désiré Dihau, basson de l'Opéra, represents the musician standing, in front bust, in suit and top hat.^[11][2] The two portraits were drawn in the garden of Père Forest (rue Forest [fr]), as was a portrait of Henri Dihau, brother of Désiré and Marie^[12][5] and kept at the musée Toulouse-Lautrec of Albi.

As for the Degas, they were hung in the living room of the Dihau and then, after Désiré's death in 1909, in the modest apartment that his sister occupied rue Victor Massé [fr]

The charming old lady lived on a small income and produced music lessons she gave, often for free, to the girls of Montmartre who were preparing to sing in the cafés.^[4]

For lack of money, she sold her first portrait painted by Degas at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York in 1922. Not wanting to part with the other two Degas paintings she owned, The Opera Orchestra and her portrait on the piano, she gave them to the Musée du Luxembourg in 1923, subject to usufruct and the payment of an annual rent of 12,000 francs, financed by David David-Weill for L'Orchestre and Marcel Guérin (art critic) for the portrait. Faced with the enthusiasm raised during an exhibition in 1924 at the Galerie Petit, by the two works, which had never before been shown to the public, apart from a few artists and some relatives of the Dihau like Toulouse-Lautrec, the contract was bought by the Louvre where they were exhibited after the death of Marie Dihau in 1935. They were transferred to the Musée d'Orsay in 1986.^[4]

Désiré Dihau died in Paris 20 August 1909.^[1]

Gallery

• 
  Mr. Désiré Dihau, basson de l'Opéra -

  Toulouse-Lautrec

  1891
• 
  Degas, Musiciens à l'orchestre (the Städel, 1872)
• 
  Degas, Le Ballet de "Robert le Diable" (Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1871)
• 
  Edgar Degas, L'Orchestre de l'Opéra (Musée d'Orsay, circa 1870)
• 
  Degas, Le Ballet de « Robert le Diable » (Victoria and Albert Museum, 1876)
• 
  Mademoiselle Marie Dihau (Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1967–1968)
• 
  Mademoiselle Dihau au piano (Degas) (musée d'Orsay, 1869)
• 
  Mademoiselle Dihau au piano (Toulouse-Lautrec) (Musée Toulouse-Lautrec, 1890)

References