The Millinery Shop
1879-86
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
100 × 110.7 cm (39 3/8 × 43 9/16 in.); Framed: 132.1 × 142.3 × 9.6 cm (52 × 56 × 3 3/4 in.)
Classification
painting
Department
Painting and Sculpture of Europe
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
14572
Art Historical Context
Nestled in the Art Institute of Chicago's collection of European paintings, *The Millinery Shop* (1879–86) by Hilaire Germain Edgar Degas captures a intimate glimpse into late 19th-century Parisian. Painted in oil on canvas, this-scale work (100 × 110.7 cm) showcases Degas's fascination with modern urban scenes, particularly the world of women in everyday settings like fashionable hat shops, or *millineries*. As a founding member of the Impressionists—though he eschewed the label himself—Degas bridged Realism and Impressionism, favoring structured compositions over fleeting outdoor light effec...
About the Artist
Hilaire Germain Edgar Degas · 1834–1917
Hilaire Germain Edgar Degas, born on July 19, 1834, in Paris to a prosperous banking family, was the eldest of five children. His mother, Célestine Musson, a Creole from New Orleans whose father Germain Musson had roots in Haiti, died when Degas was thirteen, leaving his father Augustin and unmarried uncles to guide him. Educated at the elite Lycée Louis-le-Grand, where he earned a baccalauréat in...