Description
Young Woman with Ibis shows a young woman in a dark blue-green robe and cloak standing behind a dark parapet; a scarlet ibis stands on her outstretched left hand, and a second stands on the parapet at the right with its neck raised. Behind them spreads a coral-pink sky and a distant city of towers. As a canvas painting this is an upright scene of extraordinary colour contrast: red against blue-green against pink. The original is oil on canvas and is held in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York under the inventory number 2008.277. We make it as a hand-painted work on linen, in sizes from 40 x 60 to 110 x 150 cm or to your own measurements, and you receive a photograph of the finished work for approval before dispatch.
| Title: | Young Woman with Ibis |
| Other titles: | Jeune femme et ibis |
| Painter: | Edgar Degas (1834–1917) |
| Year of execution: | 1860 |
| Original size: | 100 cm x 74,9 cm |
| Original technique: | Oil on canvas |
| Painting style: | Impressionism |
| Located at: | Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (inv. no. 2008.277) |
| Our reproduction: | hand-painted oil on linen canvas, 9 sizes from 40 x 60 cm to 110 x 150 cm, custom sizes on request |
Young Woman with Ibis – Edgar Degas
Who is shown?
A single young woman, unnamed. She stands behind a dark parapet, turned almost into profile to the left, her expression serious and a little absent. She wears a dark blue-green robe with a cloak that covers her head and falls in heavy folds to the lower edge of the canvas. Her left hand is held out, the fingers spread, and a bird stands on it. She looks neither at us nor at the birds – her gaze goes past everything.
What is on the canvas?
The scene lives on three colours that ought hardly to meet. Two scarlet ibises: one stands on the woman’s outstretched hand, its long curved bill turned to the left, the other at the right on the parapet, neck raised and bill pointing up. Their red is the strongest colour on the canvas. The woman’s robe is its opposite: deep blue-green, almost black in the folds. Behind them spreads a coral-pink sky, and at the left a distant city of tall pale towers and greenery. At the right, along the parapet, pale pinkish-white flowers grow on dark stems, and at the lower right the rim of a greenish vessel is visible.
Why does this particular scene matter?
Because it is unique in Degas. The painter we know for dancers and grey practice rooms painted something foreign and hot here – birds from another climate, a city that is not Paris, a sky that is not European. The work was made in his early years, while he was still looking for his own way, and it shows a direction he did not take. That is exactly what makes it so unusually appealing: this is the Degas he might have been.
What does the scene mean?
It does not narrate. There is no story, no explanation of why the birds and why that city; the scene stands as an image rather than an event. Impressionism for Degas always meant a cutting caught as the eye sees it; here that cutting is dreamlike rather than everyday, which for him is rare. An impressionist painting of this kind reads more like a memory than a scene. As wall art it carries a room through colour rather than subject – and here the colour carries everything.
The motif among Degas’s works
Degas’s early years are full of experiments. Hilaire de Gas comes from those same years and shows the opposite road: a stern portrait in the tradition of the old masters. The Collector of Prints and A Woman Seated beside a Vase of Flowers are only a few years later and already show a person among objects, which became his real subject. How far Degas later drove a single colour is shown by Combing the Hair at the National Gallery in London, which is almost entirely red; and how he saw himself in these same years by the Self-Portrait at the Art Institute of Chicago.
How is our hand-painted version made?
With a brush and oil colours, not a printer, and here the technique of the original is the same as ours. Every one of our canvases is made layer after layer, and in this scene everything depends on three colours: if the red of the birds comes out even a shade too dark it loses its brightness; if the blue-green robe turns too blue the contrast collapses; and if the coral sky goes grey the scene closes up. The painter therefore lays in the sky and the robe first and only then the red, which has to stay pure and unmixed. Every reproduction is made afresh and no two copies are ever quite the same, because the hand does not repeat the same stroke twice; every hand-painted copy is therefore its own. For this work we have no photographs of our finished canvases, so we show and describe none here. The photograph of your canvas reaches you before dispatch.
Which size for which wall?
If you do not know which: 70 x 90 cm – that size comes nearest in size to the original, which measures 100 x 74,9 cm. The 40 x 60 and 50 x 60 cm sizes are for a smaller room or a hallway, where the red of the birds does not quite open out. The 50 x 70 and 60 x 80 cm sizes suit a chest of drawers; of these, 60 x 80 cm is the closest to the original’s proportion. The 70 x 90 and 80 x 110 cm sizes are the most usual choice for a living room, where the colour is given space. The 90 x 120 cm size belongs above a sofa, and at 97 x 130 and 110 x 150 cm a large painting really works as a field of colour and the woman stands close to life size. Measure your chosen size on the wall with a paper cut-out first; with an upright format the mistake is usually made in the height. None of the sizes is held in stock as a finished item: every copy is made to order and stays a single piece.
Custom size, stretcher bar and frame
If none of the nine sizes suits your wall, we paint to your measurements and keep the proportions of the scene, so that both birds stay whole and the city in the background does not fall off the left edge; that is our painting made to order. Every copy is delivered stretched on a wooden bar, ready to hang. For the frame, use our 3D application: on this motif it shows every moulding profile we carry, so you can compare gold, silver, black, white and natural wood – it is for choosing a frame and nothing else. If you want to see how the work looks on your own wall, that is our separate room-placement service.
Delivery and guarantee
Every copy is made to order in our studio, so allow 15 to 45 days depending on the size you choose; for the largest sizes the time is usually at the upper end. We send it stretched and protected for transport, framed if you chose a frame, to sixteen countries in the European Union, without customs duties. You receive a photograph of the finished work for approval before dispatch, and our returns policy applies to every order. The whole range is in the Edgar Degas gallery, and the painter’s life is described in our article about Edgar Degas.
Frequently asked questions
What birds are these?
Scarlet ibises. One stands on the woman’s outstretched hand, the other at the right on the parapet with its neck raised.
Who is the woman?
She is not named. She wears a dark blue-green robe with a cloak over her head and looks past everything.
Where is the scene set?
The work does not say. A city of pale towers is visible in the distance at the left and the sky is coral pink; the place is not named, and we do not name it either.
Why is this work unusual for Degas?
Because the painter we know for dancers and grey rooms painted something foreign and hot here. It is the road he did not take.
What grows at the right along the parapet?
Pale pinkish-white flowers on dark stems. At the lower right the rim of a greenish vessel is visible.
Where is the original located?
In the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, under the inventory number 2008.277.
How large is the original?
100 by 74,9 cm, so taller than it is wide. Our 70 x 90 cm size comes nearest to it in size.
Is this a print?
No. The work is painted by hand in oil colours; the brushstrokes are visible and can be felt.
Which size should I choose?
For a living room usually 70 x 90 cm, for a smaller room 50 x 70 cm. The size guide is above.
Can I have a size that is not listed?
Yes, we paint to measure and keep the proportions of the scene while doing it.
Is it suitable as a gift?
Yes, especially for someone who likes strong colour and unusual scenes. Because every copy is made to order, allow for the making time; if you would rather leave the choice to them, there is our gift voucher.
- Subject: a young woman in a blue-green robe, two scarlet ibises, a coral sky and a distant city of towers
- Original: Edgar Degas, an oil painting on canvas, 100 x 74,9 cm, Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York (2008.277)
- Ours: hand-painted in oil, nine sizes from 40 x 60 to 110 x 150 cm, stretched and framed on request
- Worth knowing: in the painter of dancers and grey practice rooms this is the most foreign and most colourful scene – the direction he did not take
