The Milliner
Edgar Degas·1882
Historical Context
Degas's millinery shop paintings, produced in the 1880s, occupy a distinct niche in his exploration of Parisian female labour and leisure. The hat shop was simultaneously a space of feminine consumption and female artisanal work — millinery being one of the skilled trades open to working-class Parisian women — and Degas was interested in both dimensions. The Milliner shows a woman at work with hats, observed from a close, slightly elevated viewpoint that is characteristic of his mature compositional strategies.
Technical Analysis
Degas deploys the cramped, asymmetric viewpoint of his most experimental compositions, the hats and their blocks filling the foreground with abstract shapes of ribbon and felt. The worker's figure is caught mid-movement, her hands engaged with the hat — Degas preferred to show labour in process rather than at rest.
