Woman at Her Toilette
1900/05
Medium
Pastel on tracing paper
Dimensions
75 × 72.5 cm (29 9/16 × 28 9/16 in.)
Classification
pastel
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
25845
Art Historical Context
In the intimate "Woman at Her Toilette created by Edgar Degas in May 1900, we glimpse the artist's late-career fascination with everyday feminine rituals. Degas, a French master associated with Impressionism yet renowned for his realist precision and innovative compositions, captures a woman seated at her dressing table, lost in private reverie. This large-scale pastel on tracing paper—measuring 75 × 72.5 cm—exemplifies his shift toward softer, more atmospheric works as his eyesight declined in his later years. Degas was a pastel virtuoso, layering pigments for vibrant, luminous effects that ...
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...