Young Woman with Ibis
Edgar Degas·1860
Historical Context
Young Woman with Ibis is one of Degas's most enigmatic early paintings, produced in the late 1850s when he was deeply engaged with historical and allegorical subjects. The ibis — a bird associated with ancient Egypt and the god Thoth — gives the composition a deliberately archaic, orientalising atmosphere that connects to the Romantic Egyptomania then still current in French culture. The work belongs to Degas's pre-Impressionist period, when his ambitions were focused on the Salon and large-scale historical compositions rather than the intimate observations of his mature career.
Technical Analysis
Degas paints the young woman in a costume of archaic fantasy, the ibis placed beside her as an emblematic rather than naturalistic presence. The execution combines the smooth Ingres-derived linearity of his early years with an experimental approach to tonal contrast, the figure posed with the archaic frontality he associated with Greek vase painting.
