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The Milliner

ca. 1882
On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 816
Degas’s images of milliners often present witty formal analogies between women and the hats they sell or admire. In this pastel the visual pun is unmistakable. Degas compares the young shopgirl—who resembles Marie van Goethem, the model for his sculpture The Little Fourteen-Year-Old-Dancer—with an inanimate hat stand in the form of a dummy's head. The bright blue eyes of the unseeing stand stare fixedly at the hat it may soon wear.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: The Milliner
  • Artist: Edgar Degas (French, Paris 1834–1917 Paris)
  • Date: ca. 1882
  • Medium: Pastel and charcoal on warm gray wove paper, now discolored to buff (watermark MICHALLET), laid down on dark brown wove paper
  • Dimensions: 18 3/4 x 24 1/2 in. (47.6 x 62.2 cm)
  • Classification: Drawings
  • Credit Line: Purchase, Rogers Fund and Dikran G. Kelekian Gift, 1922
  • Object Number: 22.27.3
  • Curatorial Department: European Paintings

More Artwork

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Huit Sonnets. . .Illustré de dix-nuef dessins inédits de Edgar Degas
Edgar Degas
Wittenborn and Co., La Jeune Parque
1946
Seated Woman in Bonnet and Shawl, Edgar Degas French, Aquatint, drypoint, and etching; printed from canceled plate
Seated Woman in Bonnet and Shawl
Edgar Degas
ca. 1879
At the Café des Ambassadeurs, Edgar Degas French, Etching, softground, drypoint, and aquatint; fifth (final) state; canceled plate
At the Café des Ambassadeurs
Edgar Degas
1879–80
Greek Landscape, Edgar Degas French, Etching (only state; impression from cancelled plate)
Greek Landscape
Edgar Degas
1856
On Stage III, Edgar Degas French, Softground etching,drypoint, and roulette on wove paper; fourth state of five
On Stage III
Edgar Degas
1876–77

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