In nineteenth century Paris, millinery was one of the most sought after trades by women, thus Edgar Degas, along with many impressionist artists, painted millinery subject matter. Art historians studying impressionist paintings depicting milliners seem to always mention the milliner’s status as a prostitute. Edgar Degas’s The Milliners (1898), was doing something completely different, which brings into question: were the typical depictions of milliners in the nineteenth century exaggerated? This paper argues that Degas’s interpretation of the milliner brings into question if the prostitution narrative assumed by so many scholars was true for the time or a societal stereotype. Through Degas’s careful depiction of two millinery woman, The Milliners (1898) rejects the common sexualized perception of women in the workplace by painting his milliner’s in a respectful and contemplative way, free of the male gaze.This paper also suggests that Degas celebrates the act of hat making as an art as well as the milliner as an artisan.

Raegan Jackson would like to thank their faculty sponsor Bradley Bailey for their support of this project.