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Audio Stop 219

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Shown from about the hips up, a woman whose pale face is deep in shadow stands with her back to us, wearing a black and gray dress and hat, in front of a colorful but loosely painted, indistinct background in this nearly square painting. She stands just to our right of center with her elbows bent, perhaps to clasp her hands in front of her. Her head is turned slightly toward us so we see the line of her forehead, nose, and chin almost in profile facing our left. Her auburn hair seems to be pulled up under a black hat that sits on the back of her head. Her high-necked, charcoal-gray vest-like bodice has a line of white at the neck, suggesting lace or an undershirt. The bodice covers a black shirt with ruffles that fall at least to her elbows, and the long dress drapes close along the contours of her legs. She looks to the far wall, which is painted with sketchy, visible brushstrokes in marigold orange, lemon-lime green, brown, black, and pale yellow to create the impression of paintings in gold frames. The artist signed the painting in dark red in the lower right corner: “Degas.”

Edgar Degas

Woman Viewed from Behind (Visit to a Museum), c. 1879-1885

West Building, Main Floor — Gallery 86

Protection officer Jerry Foley and Kimberly A. Jones, curator of nineteenth-century French paintings, discuss Degas’s painting about looking at works of art and experiencing a sense of discovery.  

Read full audio transcript

NARRATOR:
What was French artist Edgar Degas’s intention, in making this painting? Curator Kimberly Jones:

KIM JONES:
In the foreground you have an elegantly dressed woman, with her back turned to the viewer, but then you have the background, which is very indistinguishable, made up of stripes of color. And when you look at all those elements together, you realize you're in a museum.

The fact that the background is so indistinct is actually very telling. Degas isn’t really interested in showing you the specifics of the place but rather, it’s very much a painting about looking. And in fact, the obscurity of the background hides that sensation, because we can never know what another person is seeing, what they’re experiencing as they look at a work of art.

NARRATOR:
The question of how people look at art is something that those who work in the museum have ample opportunity to observe and think about.

JERRY FOLEY:
I'm Jerry Foley. I'm what's known as a Gallery Protective Officer here. We protect art, people and buildings. It is interesting to be around the visitors, and the longer I'm here, the more I learn about art and people.

It's so varied.  Some people come in very quickly, some take their time and some, it depends on what area they're in as to how much time they take... it's quite interesting to me.  It does seem like people who come on their own are looking into it more, and reacting more on their own.

When people are not there, I tend to look at the art more.  But then when people are there, I'm also observing the people as well.

NARRATOR:
The woman in this painting is gazing at the works in the Grand Gallery of the Louvre. She may be Degas’s friend, the artist Mary Cassatt.

KIM JONES:
As a woman, Mary Cassatt was not allowed into certain areas such as nightclubs and cabarets.  The Louvre Museum was different. So it was very much a communal space that both artists could share - they both loved visiting the Louvre Museum and studying the works of old masters.

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