“At the Mirror” is a pastel genre painting by Edgar Degas, created around 1885-1886. This artwork, which is a great example of the Impressionist movement, is housed at the San Diego Museum of Art in San Diego, California, US.
The artwork depicts a woman in a moment of private contemplation or preparation as she stands before a mirror. She appears to be arranging her hat or her hair. The angle suggests a candid and intimate snapshot of this quiet moment. The use of pastel allows for soft textures and delicate color variations. The composition is dynamic, with the woman’s profile and the diagonal lines leading the viewer’s eye around the work. Degas’s signature can be seen scrawled in the top right corner of the mirror, suggesting that we are looking over the woman’s shoulder into the reflection that she herself might see. The impressionistic style is evident in the loose, expressive strokes and the emphasis on light and shadow, rather than precise detail, to convey form and substance.
