Two milliners sit at a dramatically angled worktable, their bodies partly obscured by the shadowed hat stands that crowd their work space. Seen as little more than a silhouette, the figure at right works carefully on a hat. Her attentiveness is not shared by her older counterpart who, though grasping a swath of pink fabric, appears lost in thought, gazing beyond the frame with a disquieting expression. The brightly colored ribbons--pink, yellow, orange, and green--draw attention to the drabness of the room and its inhabitants.

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.

Object Number: 2005.14 

Mark(s): Estate stamp in orange, lower right: "Degas"; faint circular stamp on reverse of canvas: "Douanes" [?]; partial canvas maker's stamp on reverse of canvas: "[J]erome Otto[z]" 

Provenance:

- 1918 Edgar Degas(L.657, L.658, L.658bis)French, 1834 - 1917 [sold, Degas sale, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, May 6-8, 1918, lot 109, to Jacques Seligmann.] 1918 - 1921 Jacques SeligmannFrench, 1858 - 1923 [sold, Seligmann sale, American Art Association, New York, January 21, 1921, lot 28, to Josse Bernheim.] Source: Getty Research Institute, annotated sale catalog 1921 - Josse Bernheim1870 - 1941 by 1933 - 1939 Ambroise VollardFrench, 1867 - 1939 by inheritance to his mistress, Madame de Galea, 1939. 1939 - 1945 Madame de GaleaFrench, died 1945 by inheritance to her son, Robert de Galea, 1945. 1945 - Robert de GaleaFrench by inheritance to his son, Christian de Galea. - 2004 Christian de GaleaFrench 2004 - 2005 Acquavella Galleries, Inc. sold to the J. Paul Getty Museum, 2005.