The Milliner
c. 1877
Medium
Pastel on canvas
Dimensions
45 × 37 cm (17 3/4 × 14 5/8 in.)
Classification
oil pastel
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
39068
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
Eva Gonzalès’s subjects were most often women engaged in activities such as reading, knitting, or filling a vase with flowers. This pastel of a milliner, or hat-maker, shows the figure handling the trimmings that will eventually be used to decorate a hat. Millinery was a popular subject for the Impressionists, given their interest in fashion and scenes from modern life.
About the Artist
Eva Gonzalès · 1847–1883
**Eva Gonzalès** (1847–1883) was a French Impressionist painter recognized as one of the four most prominent female artists in the movement, alongside Mary Cassatt, Berthe Morisot, and Marie Bracquemond. Born Eva Carola Jeanne Emmanuela Antoinette Gonzalès in Paris on 19 April 1847, she grew up immersed in literary and artistic circles thanks to her father, the writer Emmanuel Gonzalès. At sixtee...