Edgar Degas - Young Woman with Ibis 1861

Young Woman with Ibis 1861
Young Woman with Ibis
1861 100x74cm oil/canvas
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City

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From Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City:
Degas made sketches of this composition in a notebook he used during his second stay in Rome in 1857–58. Originally conceived as a depiction of a pensive woman, the picture assumed a mysterious air when Degas added the imaginary Middle Eastern cityscape, the pink flowers, and the two red ibises around 1860–62. About the same time he also considered adding the brilliant birds to his large historical painting Semiramis Building Babylon (Musée d'Orsay, Paris).