Hilaire-Germain-Edgar Degas, 'Head of a Woman', about 1874

This sensitive, complex portrait shows a woman who sat for Edgar Degas sometime around 1874. We know neither who she was, nor her profession. Degas has left us a few clues that may help to solve the mystery.

The painting differs from Degas’s usual style for this period. The textured canvas and bold brushwork suggest the work may have been experimental. But we are probably not looking at the painting as it appeared when he finished it. The woman’s face would have been smooth and unmarked. Oil paint becomes more see-through with age. The blackish underpainting visible in many places has almost certainly become more obvious since the picture was made.

She seems most likely to be one of the artist’s many models. Degas is notorious for treating his models badly. He kept them in difficult positions for long periods in a cold studio. He paid them below the going rate. Other accounts suggest he could be difficult but was a regular employer. He never behaved inappropriately and had flashes of generosity and humour. Several of his models posed for him over a number of years. This woman appears comfortable in his presence. Perhaps it is simply because she is clothed and therefore warm. But the woman’s expression looks relaxed, even dreamy. She seems to be seated and at ease.

At this stage, Degas was fascinated by Japanese ukiyo-e (floating world) prints by artists such as Katsushika Hokusai and Utagawa Hiroshige. He had built up a large collection. The woman has a low forehead. Her luxuriant hair is arranged à la Japonaise (in the Japanese style), reminiscent of the geisha women in the prints. Degas adds a stray curly strand as they sometimes do, but he carries it on to become the frilled neckline of her dress.

Degas disapproved of make-up away from the theatre. Apart from paintings of cabaret artistes, his models are usually shown without face paint. Yet this woman seems to be wearing rouge on her lips and cheeks and on her eyelids. This red stroke is a well-known method of brightening the eyes. Perhaps she had been modelling for one of the artist’s cabaret pictures before she took a rest.

The woman’s age is difficult to estimate. She is clearly older than the petit rats, the young girls from the Paris Opera, who posed for Degas’s pictures of the ballet. Yet there is something in the sweep of the upright neck that suggests she still had the posture of a dancer. She may have stayed on as a model after her dancing days ended.

The many possibilities raised by the picture give a small insight into the interests and themes in Degas’s life and work at the time. The slightly low view, the warm red glow of the dress and the faraway expression of the model make this beautiful portrait one of his most sympathetic and understanding depictions of the women who worked for him.