Pyeongye
The hats in this picture seem to float. On the left, a pale pink hat bursts with a big yellow ribbon, and behind it is a dark red one. On the table in front sits a white hat with a blue bow. The hats on the left perch on thin stands.
On the right, a woman is seated. She wears a green dress and reaches out with a long arm to lift an orange hat and look at it. Her eyes are lowered. Her lips are closed. Is she a customer choosing a hat, or a worker who makes them?
The painting is The Millinery Shop, by Edgar Degas. The museum dates it to between 1879 and 1886. In the 1880s Degas returned again and again to hat shops and the women who worked in them. This canvas is the largest of his paintings on that subject. It is nearly square, about one meter on each side. Yet the hats take up the left side and the middle, and the only person in the room is pushed to the right edge.
Start with her hands.
She wears long gloves that reach up to her elbows. One gloved hand holds the hat lightly from below. The edge of the hat is painted soft and fluffy, almost like feathers. In those years, gloves like these and a fine green wool dress could be worn by a wealthy client or by the women who worked in the shop.
So her clothes do not give us the answer. But there is one clue that does. Look at the top of her head.
She is not wearing a hat of her own. A young woman of the upper class would have been expected to have one on. Without it, she looks more like someone who works here.
And this is where Degas plays a trick. Just behind her head is a wide-brimmed hat. Its brim is heaped with pale green and white flowers, and a long green ribbon hangs down from it. Degas placed it so that it seems to rest right on top of her head. Step back from the painting, and for a moment she looks like a lady wearing a flowered hat.
Now look closely at her face.
The hats are rich with color, but the face is quick. Dabs of pink and white are laid on fast, and her brow and eyes are just a few short strokes.
He did not get there in one try. For this painting he drew and made pastels of this single figure many times, adjusting her pose and trying out different outfits. In those years, making hats was a respected trade that took skill and taste. Young women who did well at it could slowly rise in society.
