Skip to Main Content
Home>Plan Your Visit>Tours, Guides, and Maps>Self-Guided Tours>Audio Stop 419

Audio Stop 419

00:00 00:00
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

Read full audio transcript

Woman Viewed from Behind – or Visit to a Museum – by Edgar Degas, painted around 1879 to 1885. Oil on canvas. The painted surface is 2 feet 8 inches high by nearly 2 and a half feet wide.

This description is just over 2 minutes long.

Shown from behind, a white woman stands just to the right of center; the bottom edge of the canvas cuts her off just below the hips. Her head turns to the left, so we see most of her profile – her pale ear, a pink and white cheek, and the tip of her nose. Her chestnut-brown straight hair is pulled back from her face.

She is dressed in black and gray: a black hat, possibly feathered, is set on the back of her head. Her dress has a charcoal gray waistcoat with a band of white lace along the high collar. The black sleeves have ruffles around the elbows, and the narrow skirt is also black.

The woman is painted in loose, flowing brushstrokes. The background is even more free and bold. A field of parchment brown fills the lower half of the painting, angling from near the lower left corner diagonally up to the right edge. That area is separated from a blur of colors above by a white line. A series of vertical and horizontal stripes and bars in that upper zone are created from daubs and streaks of crocus yellow, flame orange, mint green, black, and fawn brown. To the far right are two vertical stripes of rose pink.

The title suggests that this captures a display in a museum. The white diagonal line cutting across the painting could be seen as an architectural element marking out the edge of the wall. Above it, the colorful lines could be the frames of pictures or the outlines of showcases. And the two pink stripes at far right could be marble columns.    

West Building Verbal Descriptions