02/08/2023
This canvas is Edgar Degas's most ambitious statement on the theme of the hat shops. Hats, which were quite fanciful during the late 19th century, allowed the artist to indulge in rich colors and experiment with a range of textures.
Although the young woman is presumably a hatmaker, it has also been suggested that she could be a client about to try on a hat. X-ray examination revealed that this figure did originally represent a customer, but in his rethinking of the subject, the artist left it open to interpretation.
As an artist, Degas may have shared sympathy with hatmakers and those who spend time creating things with their hands. He certainly would have considered the work of a milliner to be artistic in nature. And he must have also realized that the job of a custom hatmaker was rapidly becoming obsolete. Increasingly, consumer goods were manufactured more quickly, more cheaply, and in greater numbers by factories.
See "The Millinery Shop" among 12 works by Edgar Degas now on view at the Art Institute.
