Young Woman in Blue

Degas made this pastel around 1884. He was 50 and had been making images of women in Paris for over a decade: dancers, laundresses, bathers, and shop girls. A young woman stands with her arms crossed behind her back, her body turned slightly to the right. She wears a blue bodice and a dark skirt. Her face is in profile, her expression unreadable. The background is a field of warm grey, with no setting indicated. The pastel is roughly 24 by 18 inches, portrait format. The blue of the bodice is the strongest color in the composition, built in layers of pastel over charcoal. The subject is believed to be a saleswoman in a Parisian hat shop, observed by Degas during one of his walks through the city. The crossed arms and the turned head suggest impatience, or boredom, or simply waiting. Degas was interested in the unconscious postures of working women, and he returned to this kind of subject throughout his career. Degas had been working in pastel since the 1870s. By 1884 he was using it almost exclusively for his figure studies, building the colors in layers over a charcoal underdrawing. The blue of the bodice in this pastel is a typical example: it is built up in multiple strokes of different blues, from pale cerulean to dark indigo, with the charcoal showing through in the shadows. Pastel over charcoal on buff paper, 61.6 by 47 centimeters. Degas worked on paper, not canvas, and the surface is built in thick, overlapping strokes. The blue of the bodice is the focal point, with the rest of the figure in darker, more subdued tones. The background is a field of warm grey, with no spatial depth. This pastel works in a bedroom, dressing room, or hallway. The blue bodice and the intimate subject suit a room with soft lighting and blue or grey accents. The 11x14 framed version in a white frame is the most versatile size. The pastel is in the Indianapolis Museum of Art, the Delavan Smith Fund. This is a public domain artwork, sourced from Wikimedia Commons. We print it on archival matte paper at sizes from 8x10 to 24x36 inches, framed or unframed. The image is printed at full resolution with no cropping.