In August 1858, Degas visited Florence to stay with his aunt, Laura Bellilli. However, Laura Bellilli and her two daughters, Giulia and Gennaro, were delayed in Naples by the death of Hilaire Degas, and they only returned early in November. After their arrival Degas began painting what was to become, after many transformations, The Bellilli Family Portrait. During the preparatory work for this canvas Degas wrote how he painted his two younger cousins, experimenting with tones of black and white: "I am doing them in their black dresses and their little white pinafores, in which they look delightful." (Letter to Gustave Moreau, 27 Nov. 1858). Giulia seems to be wearing the same mourning dress in this separate portrait of her. It therefore seems likely that the two works were probably executed at about the same time, as suggested by Jean Sutherland Boggs in the exhibition catalogue of Degas et La Famille Bellilli. It had previously been suggested that the portrait of Giulia dates from 1856. (H. Finsen, Degas et La Famille Bellilli, exh. cat., Copenhagen, 1983, pp. 84-85).

On comparing this portrait of Giulia with a preparatory sketch of her for the family portrait (Lemoisne 69) it is possible to see how succinctly Degas captured her physiognomy. Her stubborn, serious expression in the small portrait has softened slightly in the family portrait, and her head is turned to the side, but her features are still quite distinct: "Les sourcils nettement arqué au-dessus des yeux sombres, presque orientaux, ainsi que la robe, établissent un contraste frappant avec le reste du visage. Des lèvres charnues indiquent l'abandon, une certaine pétulance." (J. S. Boggs, ibid, p. 15)