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Interior
Edgar Degas French
Not on view
Whether this enigmatic canvas is based on a novel by Edmond Duranty or Émile Zola, or on a print of a sex worker by Gavarni, as some have proposed, Degas referred to it as “my genre painting.” The artist made a radical shift from the history paintings he had been engaged with to present an unnerving and vividly modern subject. A menacing man leans against the door, trapping the figures in the dramatically lit room. A young woman, in disheveled undergarments, turns her back to him. The clothes thrown on the bed and the corset lying on the floor extend the disturbing dimensions of the painting. The work was also known as Le viol (The Rape) during the artist’s lifetime.
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