Woman Combing Her Hair

Edgar Degas was a master of capturing the unguarded intimacy of private life, and Woman Combing Her Hair (ca. 1888–90) stands as one of his most tender and psychologically resonant works. Created in pastel on light green wove paper — now mellowed to a warm gray — and affixed to its original pulpboard mount, this composition belongs to Degas's celebrated series of female nudes engaged in the rituals of grooming. Rather than idealized figures posed for the viewer, Degas sought to portray women as if observed through a keyhole, absorbed entirely in their own world.

The pastel medium allowed Degas to layer luminous color and gestural mark-making with extraordinary subtlety, evoking the softness of skin and the rhythmic flow of hair with equal grace. The intimate scale and close cropping heighten the sense of voyeuristic presence, a hallmark of his mature Impressionist vision. Held in the collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, this work remains a cornerstone of late nineteenth-century figural art.

This stretched canvas reproduction is printed on premium matte canvas and professionally hand-wrapped around a sturdy 0.75-inch wooden frame with a clean gallery wrap finish — ready to display and crafted to museum-quality standards.