In the Salon, Edgar Degas, c. 1880s
Edgar Degas, portraitEdgar DegasFrench, 1834–1917

In the Salon

c. 1880s · Print

Can I see it?

Not on view at present

Where is “In the Salon” now? Collection: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland. Not on view at present. Checked September 29, 2026.

The Cleveland Museum of Art

Cleveland, United States

It belongs to the collection, but is not on display at present.

Checked
In this state since
Source
The museum

About the work

Edgar Degas's series of monotypes depicting brothels depicted a hidden aspect of Parisian life. Degas's interest in the subject paralleled the theme of the prostitute in naturalist novels of the era by Emile Zola and Edmond and Jules de Goncourt, and echoed the then-contemporary debate about the regulation—or abolition—of prostitution in Paris. In this print, three women await their clients under a luminous globed chandelier. A standing figure reaches out her left arm as if to beckon an unseen visitor.

The Cleveland Museum of Art

Details

Accession number
1977.44

In the catalog

Sources

In the life of Edgar Degas

The whole life
  1. autumn 1879 – April 1880

    The prints journal: Degas abruptly withdraws

    In the autumn and winter of 1879–1880 Degas and Cassatt worked closely together on a prints journal; he owned a small printing press. In April 1880 Degas abruptly withdrew, and without his support the project folded.

  2. by 1880

    The end of his financial crisis

    By 1880 Degas had fully overcome his financial crisis and become a respected figure in the Paris art world; the Impressionist exhibitions, which proved commercially useful to him, helped.

  3. 1881

    “The Little Dancer of Fourteen Years” on show

    The nearly life-size wax figure with real hair and a cloth tutu, modelled on Marie van Goethem, provoked a strong reaction: critics found its realism extraordinary, but many denounced the dancer as ugly. It was the only sculpture Degas showed in his lifetime.

  4. by 1882

    His eyesight sharply worsens

    By 1882 Degas's eyesight began to worsen sharply: he turned to pastel and then to sculpture, where he could rely more on touch.

  5. 1886

    The eighth exhibition: pastel nudes, and the end of the group

    At the last Impressionist exhibition Degas showed a suite of pastel nudes, which drew more critical writing than anything else in his lifetime, mostly laudatory. The group broke up, partly through rancour over the inclusion of non-Impressionists such as Forain and Raffaëlli.

  6. 1890s

    The Dreyfus Affair: a break with his Jewish friends

    The Dreyfus Affair intensified Degas's antisemitism: by the mid-1890s he had broken with all his Jewish friends and refused to use models he thought might be Jewish; the affair also set him at odds with Mary Cassatt. He remained among the Anti-Dreyfusards until his death.

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