# Woman Combing Her Hair [View the canonical artwork record]() ## Artwork - Artist: [DEGAS, Edgar]() - Date: 1851-1900 - Technique: Pastel on gray-brown paper pasted onto card, 53 x 52 cm ## Commentary Woman Combing Her Hair c. 1885 Pastel on gray-brown paper pasted onto card, 53 x 52 cm The Hermitage, St. Petersburg Around 1880 Degas's grays gave way to brilliant colours, ranging from red to russet, and muted tones were replaced by warm ones. This came with a change in style and technique, in which pastels became his dominant medium. Degas was the only nineteenth-century painter who made pastels his primary medium. He saw that pastels struck a balance between painting and drawing, enabling him to paint while drawing. Furthermore, he expanded the possibilities offered by pastels by combining them with gouache, watercolour, oils mixed freely with turpentine, and even monotypes. ## Related artworks - [A Ballet Dancer in Position]() - [Absinthe Drinkers]() - [After the Bath]() - [After the Bath. Woman Drying Herself]() - [At the Beach]() - [At the Café des Ambassadeurs]() - [At the Milliner's]() - [At the Milliner's]() - [At the Mirror]() - [At the Races in the Countryside]() - [Aux Ambassadeurs: Mademoiselle Bécat]() - [Ballerina with a Bouquet, Curtsying]() ## Attribution [Web Gallery of Art]()