Woman at a Window
- Artist: Edgar Germain Hilaire Degas
- Date: 1871
- Medium: Oil (peinture à l’essence) on paper
- Museum: The Courtauld Gallery
- Collection record: The Courtauld Gallery website
Listen to the free audio guide
About this artwork
This is the “Woman at a Window” by Edgar Germain Hilaire Degas. Painted in 1871, during the siege of Paris by the Prussian army, it captures a quiet moment amid the turmoil. The canvas shows a woman, head turned, silhouetted against a bright, almost glassy window that bathes her profile in a calm, serene light.
The story behind the work is more dramatic than it first appears. Walter Sickert, who owned the piece, recalled that the model was starving at the time. Sickert said Degas paid her with a raw piece of meat—and she allegedly ate it on the spot.
Degas pushed his own technique here: he drained the oil from his paint, leaving a matte finish that gives the work a subtle, almost unfinished look. Yet the artist himself signed the canvas, insisting it was complete.
The medium—oil on paper—enhances the texture of the matte paint and contributes to the work’s understated intensity. All these elements combine to create a painting that feels both serene and charged with historical and personal drama, inviting viewers to look beyond the surface.
See it in person
Woman at a Window hangs in The Courtauld Gallery at Somerset House, London. Point your phone at any artwork there and audioguide.london plays a free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
