Woman Having Her Hair Combed

Edgar Degas created Woman Having Her Hair Combed (ca. 1886–88) during one of the most celebrated periods of his career, when he turned his gaze with unflinching intimacy toward the private rituals of women at their toilette. Executed in pastel on wove paper, this work belongs to a landmark series of bather and grooming scenes that Degas exhibited at the final Impressionist exhibition of 1886, redefining what could be considered a worthy subject for fine art.

The composition captures a moment of unselfconscious grace — a woman yielding to the attentions of a maid who draws a comb through her cascading hair. Degas employs his signature hatched pastel strokes to build luminous, tactile surfaces, rendering flesh, fabric, and hair with equal sensitivity. The muted, warm-gray ground of the original paper lends the scene a quiet, almost timeless atmosphere. There is no narrative drama here, only the beauty of an everyday gesture elevated to poetry.

This work is a testament to Degas's mastery of line, color, and observation, and remains a cornerstone of Impressionist art history. Gallerivm presents this masterpiece as a museum-quality stretched canvas reproduction, printed on premium matte canvas and hand-finished with a 0.75-inch gallery wrap — ready to display and built to endure.