Edgar Degas

This painting depicts a young girl from Savoy, a mountainous region adjacent to Italy and Switzerland that was annexed by France in 1860. Female figures in regional clothing were popular subjects in 19th-century art, but they were unusual in the works of Edgar Degas.

Early in his career, Degas spent three years in Italy, visiting family and studying Renaissance art. Here, recalling the techniques and appearance of 16th-century Florentine portraiture, Degas carefully drew and modeled the young girl’s head. He then opposed these traditional methods of construction with wide, loose brushstrokes that suggest the dense, pleated folds of her coif (linen headdress) and the softer textures of her collar and dress.