![Edgar Degas - At the Milliner’s [1881]](http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7472/15595023489_efb489f15e_o.jpg)
This work is perhaps the earliest of Degas' pastels of scenes in milliners' shops. It may have been conceived as a picture of a shop-girl (at left) adjusting a hat on a stand. However, once Degas drew the woman underneath the hat at the right and added the back of the sofa, the identity of the figure at the left was transformed, as shop-girls were not allowed to sit. Thus the picture became one of two friends or sisters.
[Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York - Pastel on five pieces of paper, laid down on canvas, 69.2 x 69.2 cm]