Explore The Milliners

Read About This Painting by Edgar Degas

In this painting by Edgar Degas, two milliners sit at an angled worktable, their bodies partly obscured by the shadowed hat stands that crowd their workspace. A milliner is someone who makes and sells hats. In the late 1800s, this was a common job for working-class women in Paris. Degas painted these women several times throughout his career.

In The Milliners, you see women working, focused on their craft. Seen as a silhouette, the figure at the right works carefully on a hat. Her attentiveness is not shared by her counterpart, who, though grasping a swath of pink fabric, appears lost in thought, gazing beyond the picture frame with a distressed expression. The brightly colored ribbons—pink, yellow, orange, and green—draw attention to the drabness of the room and its inhabitants.

Over about 30 years, Degas produced more than 20 paintings, pastels, and drawings of millinery shops. Among modern painters, Degas was the only one to depict this subject matter so often. His empathetic portrait of the milliners’ 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 pale skin register a life of hard work.

Questions

Write or discuss your responses.

• Look closely at the painting. What is the first thing you notice? What else do you notice?
• Where do you think the women are? What do you see that makes you say that?
• What do the women’s poses and expressions reveal about their thoughts or feelings?
• Look closely at the woman on the left. If she could speak, what do you think she might say?
• Look closely at the woman on the right. If she could speak, what do you think she might say?
• Why do you think Degas painted the hats and hat stands so that they partially cover the woman on the left?

Skilled worker who designs, makes, and sells hats.

A chalk of dry pigment mixed with just enough binder to hold it together. The word also applies to a artwork made with this material. Because the colors remain on the surface in a powdery form, pastel paintings are extremely fragile.

Artworks showing what a specific person looks like. A portrait may look a lot like a person or show idealized characteristics.