Impressionist Artist Art - Edgar Degas Woman Ironing, c. 1887

Women at work provided inspiration for Degas. In addition to ballet dancers and cabaret singers, he also painted milliners and dressmakers, laundresses and ironers -- such as the young woman here. Writer Edmond de Goncourt described a visit to Degas' studio when the artist showed him "washerwomen and still more washerwomen...." Degas was interested in their movements and postures, the patterns and rhythms of their work. Degas, de Goncourt continued, had gone about "speaking their language, explaining to us technically the downward pressing and circular strokes of the iron, etc...."

Laundresses also appeared as characters in newly popular realistic novels, which detailed the difficult lives of these women. They worked long, hot hours for low wages, and because they wore loose clothing and made deliveries to men's apartments, their morals were often questioned. Degas, however, seems not to have been interested in their social situation so much as in their characteristic gestures -- in the line of his ironer's body as she leans into her work, in the soft curtain of color provided by the garments that hang around her, in the crisp shirt folded on the table.

Edgar Degas - NGA

Degas was born to an aristocratic family, unusually supportive of his desire to paint. ... 4 · Edgar Degas, Woman Ironing, begun c. 1876, completed c. 1887 ...

Edgar Degas (1832 - 1917)

Oil on canvas, 80 x 63.5cm
Accession Number WAG6645

Degas's laundress pictures paralleled his more famous ballet dancer series. For both he studied the precise movements of women at work.

The art of Degas was that of a 'Naturalist', depicting what was considered vulgar - laundresses were commonly thought of as borderline prostitutes - in a way that was almost scientific.

A double viewpoint is used - looking straight at the woman's face and down at her board. Her outlined and cropped figure also indicate Degas's debts to both Japanese art and snapshot photography.

Purchased with the help of the National Art Collections Fund.

'Woman ironing', Edgar Degas

Image and description of Edgar Degas's 19th century oil painting 'Woman Ironing'.

Edgar Degas Woman Ironing. 1882. Oil on canvas. The National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, USA

Edgar Degas - NGA

'Woman ironing' c1890

Edgar Degas (1832 - 1917)

Oil on canvas, 80 x 63.5cm
Accession Number WAG6645

'Woman ironing', Edgar Degas

Edgar Degas Woman Ironing. 1882. Oil on canvas. The National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, USA

Edgar Degas - NGA

'Woman ironing' c1890

Edgar Degas (1832 - 1917)

Oil on canvas, 80 x 63.5cm Accession Number WAG6645

'Woman ironing', Edgar Degas

Oil on canvas, 80 x 63.5cm
Accession Number WAG6645