Woman in a grey dress leaning on a chair and a man seated at a desk with papers, beneath a horse-racing picture

Sulking

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What you see

In a wood-paneled office, a woman in a lilac-grey dress leans on the back of a chair and looks out at us. On the right, a man in a dark suit slumps over a desk piled with papers, his eyes turned down. Between them hangs a picture of a horse race, which keeps the two figures apart.

Browns and reddish wood tones dominate, with the grey dress and the green desktop adding a cool note. The paint is smooth and careful, with precise details. Don’t miss the white inkwell on the desk, the row of green binders at upper right, and the ruffles on her skirt.

About Edgar Degas

Edgar Degas is famous for his ballet dancers, whom he painted in classes, rehearsals and backstage more than a thousand times. He liked to capture movements of a single instant, as if they were photographs. Besides oil paint, he often used pastels, sticks of colour that give a soft, velvety look.

All 11 works by Edgar Degas