Photo courtesy of wallyg at Flickr Creative Commons. |
Degas in New Orleans |
"A Cotton Office in New Orleans" by Edgar Degas, 1873 |
The Musson family tomb in St. Louis No. 1 Cemetery, New Orleans. |
Hilaire-Germain-Edgar Degas |
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Block of buildings on Carondelet Street known as Factors Row, where Degas' uncle's cotton brokerage - the scene of "The Cotton Office" - was located. Cotton brokers were known as cotton factors. These factors acted, in essence, as agents for cotton planters, but they provided many other services, including extending credit and providing investment advice. Many had warehouses which they leased to planters as storage for the cotton. In the days when the international cotton trade was at its zenith, there were over 450 cotton factors in New Orleans. |
This was the home of Degas' g-grandfather, Vincent Rillieux. It's on Chartres Street and was built in the late 1700's, just after the great fire of 1794. It served as home to three different New Orleans banks. Since 1881, it's been occupied by Waldhorn & Adler Antiques. |