A Maid combing a Woman's Hair
- Artist: Pierre-Cécile Puvis de Chavannes
- Date: about 1883
- Medium: oil on board
- Museum: The National Gallery
- Collection record: The National Gallery website
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About this artwork
This is "A Maid combing a Woman's Hair" by Pierre-Cécile Puvis de Chavannes, painted around 1883. It's a preparatory sketch for a larger painting, "The Toilette", which was finished in the same year and is now housed at the Musée d'Orsay in Paris.
Notice how the two figures are cropped close together, drawing you into their intimate scene. The maid doesn't seem to be paying attention to her task, lost as she is in reverie alongside the young woman. What's going through this beautiful woman's mind? That's what Puvis invites us to wonder.
The subject of a woman at her toilette has a long history in art. It allowed painters to capture moments of beauty and intimacy, often without reference to any specific literary text or incident. In fact, this genre became quite popular in England during the late 19th century, where it was known as 'Dreams of fair women'.
Puvis's finished painting edges towards a more mysterious dream world, which was also characteristic of the Symbolist movement. However, this sketch has an immediacy that suggests Puvis worked from life models. He smoothed out the particularities for the final work, presenting a more idealised woman.
The paint is thin and quickly applied with long brushstrokes, giving it a sense of spontaneity. Despite being just a preparatory sketch, Puvis was clearly pleased enough with this picture to sign it. The motif of a young woman having her hair combed had a particular appeal to his contemporary, Degas, who also preferred to paint red-headed women.
See it in person
A Maid combing a Woman's Hair hangs in The National Gallery on Trafalgar Square, London — free to enter. Point your phone at any artwork there and audioguide.london plays a free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
