Italienne (Gaëta)

Museum record 185806: Italienne (Gaëta) by Edgar Degas. A verified entry point for discovery.

What to notice

For Italienne (Gaëta) (record 185806), start with modern, expressive, atmospheric. Compare the focal subject, edge treatment, and atmosphere before moving on.

Discover

The young woman who posed for this study probably came from Mola di Gaëta, now known as Formia, a small town in southern Italy. Her heavy dress, with its wide, embroidered sleeves, was typical of the locals. Degas traveled considerably in the vicinity of Rome and Naples in about 1856–59 while, under the sponsorship of the French state, he was a resident at the Villa Medici. Artists slightly senior to Degas had made their name with this kind of imagery, as rural Italian subjects were popular with buyers b…