The Little Milliners

As you might have noticed, today is Black Friday. On this occasion we have a surprise for you - we feature this beautiful pastel with a shop scene painted by Degas. Enjoy! :)

In the 1880s Degas began representing women at work, whether dancers, laundresses, cabaret performers, or hat makers, as with Little Milliners. During this time he also created an intimate series of pastels that feature women washing and drying themselves, such as After the Bath. These exquisite pastels reveal Degas’ keen observation of everyday moments. His figures are caught off guard, often in awkward poses, their movements broken down to convey the underlying rhythms of their actions and gestures.Over the course of about thirty years, Edgar Degas produced more than twenty paintings, pastels, and drawings of millinery shops. Among modern painters, Degas alone depicted this subject matter with such frequency. His voyeuristic yet empathetic portrait of the milliner's private world focuses on the physical hardship of their work. The woman at the left embodies the painter's concern; even at rest, her wiry body and pallid skin registers a life of hard work and meager reward.