Occupational Medicine 2015;65:268–269
doi:10.1093/occmed/kqv064
ART AND OCCUPATION
Edgar Degas, Repasseuses (Women Ironing) c.1884
Confined in a dingy, bare room, damp seeping through
the grimy, rough-plastered walls, two red-headed women,
simply clothed in plain blouses and grey skirts, are in the
midst of their daily toil. The right-hand laundress, head
bent, face invisible, straggles of pinned-up hair springing
free, her arms outstretched, leans heavily with both hands
on a small flat iron and presses a grey shirt spread out
on a crude tabletop. Her young snub-nosed colleague,
exhausted by the tiring, repetitive work takes a short
break. She cradles her head with her left hand and yawns
deeply, while unerringly maintaining a vice-like grip on
the neck of a soon to be sampled, thirst slaking, bottle of
wine. Her grubby, short-sleeved blouse reveals well-developed arm muscles, which her cauliflower right ear hints
have been involved in some less than ladylike activity. Her
bright orange scarf, pinned at the front, decorously covers
her shoulders and modestly hides her décolletage. A black
cast-iron stove occupies the back right-hand corner, heating the room and keeping the irons up to temperature.
Degas painted this picture directly on to an unprepared, coarse canvas and signed his name in the top righthand corner [1]. His rough technique matches the scene,
which depicts both the sweet, sad poetry and the gruelling,
alienation of the laundress’s work [2]. His documentary
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Art and Occupation 269
but voyeuristic realism captures their skill, strength,
application and autonomy yet also alludes to the sexual
availability and excesses of their daily lives [3]. Images of
women constitute >75% of Degas’ output, which many
feminist art historians consider obsessive, repetitious and
sadistic, pampering to 19th century Parisian ‘phallocentric’, bourgeois male gaze (in crisis and blighted by syphilis)
[4,5]. Others have rejected this misogynistic interpretation [6–8] and have described Degas’ treatment of the
‘uterine economy’ as appositely sensitive throughout his
oft-repeated exposition of French 19th century attitudes
to class, race, gender and sexuality [4].
Edgar Germaine Hilaire Degas was born into a moderately wealthy Parisian family (1834), the eldest of banker
Augustin De Gas and his Creole wife Marie-Célestine’s
five children. Degas gave up law school in Paris (1853)
and trained briefly at the Ecôle des Beaux-Arts before
travelling to Italy, where he stayed with wealthy family
members and studied Renaissance art [6]. On his return
(1859), he went back to his studies at the Louvre and
began exhibiting at the Paris Salon (1865) [9]. Although
closely associated with the Impressionists and repeatedly
exhibiting at their shows, Degas rejected their improvized
compositions, rapid brushwork and painting en plein
air. In contrast, he made copious preliminary drawings,
carefully planning his paintings, which he completed in
a meticulously arranged studio [10]. Despite this obsessive approach, his visual inventiveness was prolific and
often photographically inspired with unusual angles,
audacious perspectives, asymmetrical compositions, offcentre subjects and cut-off views [11].
Degas suffered from a progressive hereditary retinal
maculopathy [12] and by the late 1880s, his failing eyesight forced him to adopt more forgiving media such as
pastels and sculpture, which allowed him to use his hands
rather than his eyes. With increasing age and deteriorating vision, he became more reclusive, curmudgeonly and
morose but continued to work [13]. He died in 1917,
aged 83 and left over 1200 paintings and 150 sculptures
of his own creation. These sold for more than US$1 million [14]. He also left a collection of pieces by El Greco,
Ingrés, Delacroix, Manet and Cassatt, which auctioned
for 10 million Fr [15]. He was buried in the family tomb,
at Cimitière de Montmartre, Paris.
Degas’ ‘phallocentric’ world is long past but how far
has ‘feminization’ of medicine progressed? [16] In the
UK, women represent 55% of medical graduates and
32% of specialist registrars generating between 12% (cardiology) and 70% (palliative medicine) of hospital consultants [17]. For occupational physicians and trainees,
the UK figures are 26 and 57%, respectively (Society of
Occupational Medicine Membership, personal communication; Faculty of Occupational Medicine, personal communication). What impact does gender segregation have
on clinical practice, research agendas [18] and leadership
[19] and is this reflected in the design and implementation of workplace occupational health programmes?
Mike McKiernan
e-mail: [email protected]
References
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