Through their depictions of women, many 19th-century artists destabilised contemporary conventions of femininity. Composed, classically inspired images popular in the first half of the century gave way to more prosaic interpretations.

The casualness and apparent spontaneity of Edgar Degas’s pastel nudes led writer Joris-Karl Huysmans to proclaim that the artist must have an ‘attentive cruelty’ towards women. In fact, Degas’s motivation was his fascination with capturing the figure in momentary poses, an interest informed by the relatively new medium of photography.

Many of Degas’s portraits departed from the highly finished quality of earlier portraiture. Here too he turned to photography, as in his portrayal of Princess de Metternich. Similarly, by frequently reworking the painted surface, Degas created a psychologically probing depiction of a female subject in his portrait of Hélène Rouart, shown standing in her father’s study and defined, as it were, by patriarchal possessions.