Interior, also known as The Rape, is an oil painting on canvas by Edgar Degas (1834–1917), painted in 1868–1869. Described as "the most puzzling of Degas's major works", it depicts a tense confrontation by lamplight between a man and a partially undressed woman. The theatrical character of the scene has led art historians to seek a literary source for the composition, but none of the sources proposed has met with universal acceptance.
Interior has been described as "the most theatrical of all Degas's compositions of modern life". Art historians have written of the work's "distinctly stage-managed character: items are arranged as if they are props, while the dramatic lighting increases the impression that a play is being enacted ... Interpretation →
Degas painted Interior at a time when his growing commitment to Realism had led him away from his earlier preoccupation with historical subjects such as Sémiramis Building Babylon (1860–1862), Young Spartans Exercising (ca.1860), and the painting which marked his Salon debut, Scene of War in the Middle Ages (1865). Background →
The influence of Interior has been noted in the compositions of Degas's protégé Walter Sickert, specifically in the latter's The Camden Town Murder series of 1908, and his painting Ennui of 1914. Influence →
Mr. and Mrs. Édouard Manet
186865 × 71 cmKitakyushu Municipal Museum of Art
The Ballet Class
187185 × 75 cmMusée d'Orsay
The Ballet Class is an oil painting on canvas created between 1874 and 1876 by the French artist Edgar Degas. The painting depicts a group of ballet dancers at the end of a lesson, led by ballet master Jules Perrot. Known for portraying dancers, Degas captured the grace and the rigorous nature of ballet as a profession.
The Ballet Class depicts a silver-haired teacher, Jules Perrot, at the center giving private lessons to young dancers in the Hôtel de Choiseul. According to the American art critic Richard Mühlberger, Perrot's critical expression suggests the Realism and lifelike quality of the artwork. Subject matter →
Degas turned to ballet painting at a time when the status of ballet was in flux at the Paris Opéra. The era of romantic ballet lasted from the 1820s to the late 1860s, just before this painting was created. Time period →
Jill DeVonyar and Richard Kendall suggest that The Ballet Class painting was well underway before Jules Perrot was introduced as the focus. Perrot was painted over another male teacher, thought to be Louis Merante. Process and technique →
Count Lepic and His Daughters
187165 × 81 cmKunsthaus Zürich
Ludovic Lepic and His Daughters is an oil painting on canvas completed ca. 1871 by the French artist Edgar Degas. The painting depicts Ludovic-Napoléon Lepic with his young daughters, Eylau and Jeanine. Degas also depicted Ludovic Lepic in the painting Place de la Concorde.
A Cotton Office in New Orleans
187374 × 92 cmMusée des Beaux-Arts de Pau
A Cotton Office in New Orleans, also known as Interior of an Office of Cotton Buyers in New Orleans and Portraits in an Office (New Orleans), is an oil painting by Edgar Degas. Degas depicts the interior of his maternal uncle Michel Musson's cotton firm in New Orleans. Musson, Degas's brothers René and Achille, Musson's son-in-law William Bell, and other associates of Musson are shown engaged in various business and leisure activities while raw cotton rests on a table in the middle of the office.
Art historian Michelle Foa notes that the painting alludes to the life cycle of cotton. Cotton is represented in its raw form and its transformation into textiles is suggested through the men's finished clothing along with the various papers scattered around the office. Analysis →
Edgar Degas had familial ties to Creole New Orleans. Germain Musson, Degas's maternal grandfather, was born of French descent in Port-Au-Prince. Family ties to New Orleans and visit →
The production and sale of cotton was vital to the Antebellum Southern US economy. It was also inextricably linked to slavery in the United States. Cotton, slavery, Civil War, and Reconstruction →
L'Absinthe
187692 × 68 cmMusée d'Orsay
L'Absinthe is a painting by Edgar Degas, painted between 1875 and 1876. Its original title was Dans un Café, a name often used today.
At its first showing in 1876, the picture was panned by critics, who called it ugly and disgusting. It was seen at the third Impressionist exhibition in 1877, but not again until it appeared at auction in 1892, when it was again treated with derision. Reception →
Painted in 1875–76, the work portrays a woman and man sitting side-by-side, the woman drinking a glass of absinthe. They appear lethargic and lonely. Description →
Miss La La at the Cirque Fernando
1879117 × 78 cmNational Gallery
Miss La La at the Cirque Fernando is an oil on canvas painting by the French Impressionist artist Edgar Degas. Painted in 1879 and exhibited at the Fourth Impressionist Exhibition in Paris that same year, it is now in the collection of the National Gallery in London. It is Degas's only circus painting, and Miss La La is the only identifiable person of color in Degas's works.
The painting was bought by the trustees of the Courtauld Fund in 1925. Originally displayed in the Tate, it was transferred to the National Gallery in the 1950s along with masterpieces by Manet, Renoir, Seurat and Van Gogh, once they were no longer regarded as modern. Legacy →
Degas visited the recently established Cirque Fernando (built 1875) at least four times between the 19th and 25th of January 1879. The star attraction was the act of Miss La La, a mixed-race acrobat, known as la femme canon. Introduction →
The painting shows Miss La La suspended from the rafters of the circus dome by a rope clenched between her teeth. The sense of suspended animation in the scene is consistent with Degas's larger interest in capturing fleeting moments. Content →
The Millinery Shop by Edgar Degas
1879100 × 111 cmArt Institute of Chicago
The Millinery Shop is an oil on canvas painting by the French Impressionist artist Edgar Degas created between 1879 and 1886. It illustrates a young woman, perhaps a hat-maker or a shop customer, seated at a table examining a hat in her hands and additional hats on wooden stands. The colorful and fashionable hats take up most the frame.
The painting includes many techniques characteristic of Degas's work and the Impressionist movement. Degas often painted his subjects from unconventional angles. Impressionism →
It is unclear whether Degas intended for the woman depicted in The Millinery Shop to be a customer or shop worker. The Art Institute of Chicago suggests her identity is deliberately left unidentifiable. Identity of the woman →
According to the art historians Simon Kelly and Esther Bell, the hats on the table "reflect the very latest fashions for spring and summer in the early 1880s." Of note are the wide range of fabrics, colors, and materials used to make the hats. Parisian millinery →
The Tub
188660 × 83 cmMusée d'Orsay
The Tub is an 1886 pastel drawing on heavy wove paper by the French artist Edgar Degas. The work depicts a nude woman crouched in a shallow tub, illuminated by early morning light as she bathes. It is one of seven pastels Degas created in the mid-1880s showing women bathing or drying themselves in private interiors.
The Tub was acquired immediately by Émile Boussod, ahead of its appearance in the spring exhibition. In 1895, the work was purchased by Count Isaac de Camondo for 14,000 francs and remained in his collection until his death. Provenance →
At the time of the exhibition, most critics emphasized the realism of Degas's nude series. Félix Fénéon and Jules Desclozeaux exemplified this reading, with Desclozeaux writing of "the sharp gaze of a surgeon… a taste for reality". Reception →
During the late nineteenth century, pastels primarily attracted the interest of private collectors. Degas, however, broke from convention by exhibiting his paintings, pastels, and drawings on an equal footing. Context →
The Bellelli Family
1900200 × 253 cmMusée d'Orsay
The Bellelli Family, also known as Family Portrait, is an oil painting on canvas by Edgar Degas (1834–1917), painted c. 1858–1867, and housed in the Musée d'Orsay. A masterwork of Degas' youth, the painting is a portrait of his aunt, her husband, and their two young daughters.
In 1856 Degas left his home in Paris to study art and visit family relations in Italy, arriving in Naples on 17 July. In 1857 he traveled between Naples, where he stayed with his grandfather, Hilaire Degas, and Rome. Background →
At the time of its sale in 1918, the painting was in poor condition. In addition to the black streaks and crackling, it had tears and was dust-covered, and may have been kept by Degas for many years rolled-up in the corner of his successive studios. Condition →
After his aunt and cousins returned in early November 1858, Degas undertook a series of works that would eventually culminate in The Bellelli Family. It appears that he initially planned to paint a vertical composition depicting his aunt and her two daughters in a pyramidical grouping. Process →
