Portrait after a Costume Ball by Degas

This shimmering pastel belongs to Edgar Degas’s famous series dedicated to Parisian milliners’ salons. Through the composition temporarily titled “Portrait after a Costume Ball - Portrait of Madame Dietz-Monnin”, the artist casts an intimate and curious gaze upon the world of women’s fashion. This work lies at the heart of the Impressionist movement through its unique ability to capture a fleeting everyday moment, far from the theatricality of traditional bourgeois representations.

An elegant woman occupies the center of the scene, seated before an unseen dressing table. She wears a luminous white dress and a large powdery pink hat adorned with a white feather, raising her gloved hand to adjust its brim. Around her neck wraps a long, sumptuous dark brown fur boa that cascades down to her lap. In the background, the blurred reflection of a mirror reveals another female figure also trying on a headpiece in a room with ochre and pastel tones. On the left, a large ochre hat rests on a wooden stand. The whole scene is bathed in a soft artificial light that makes the tulles and velvets vibrate.

The artist’s craftsmanship shines through the virtuoso use of pastel chalks to suggest textures. His exceptional technical mastery allows him to contrast the vaporous lightness of feathers with the warm density of fur. The artist succeeds in sculpting light with infinite delicacy.