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When exhibited at the sale of Degas' atelier in 1918, the picture elicited some confusion from critics; one called it "as dull as a Flemish interior, although the dry technique is distinctive." Most of the reviews were positive, and with the country at war, The Bellelli Family was seen as possessing a distinctly French character, a "modern primitive" that bore comparison to the Avignon Pieta. Since then, biographers of Degas have acknowledged it as the masterpiece of his youth.
Avignon Pieta