Name: Lecture: Char/Coal/Smoke: Edgar Degas’s “Women Ironing” and “The Laundress," Ecocritically
Start: 2026-05-23T17:00:00-07:00
End: 2026-05-23T18:00:00-07:00
Location: Norton Simon Museum

$Lecture: Char\/Coal\/Smoke: Edgar Degas\u2019s \u201cWomen Ironing\u201d and \u201cThe Laundress," Ecocritically$

Marni Kessler, Professor and Director of Graduate Studies, Kress Foundation Department of Art History, University of Kansas
In his more than 40 representations of ironers, Edgar Degas consistently highlighted the arduousness of women’s labor and their exhaustion, portraying them mid-yawn, enervated and flushed.
Focusing on two works in the Museum’s collection, Kessler takes an ecocritical approach to expand our understanding of the artist’s depiction of the difficulties of laundresses’ lives. Centering his richly layered evocation of the toxic coal smoke emitted by the stoves that heated their irons, we see how Degas foregrounded the unhealthy air that ironers breathed. And in so doing, we encounter these women, and the fullness of their humanity, anew.

DETAILS:
Tickets are available the day of the program on site starting at 4:00 p.m. Theater doors open at 4:30 p.m.
More info: https://www.nortonsimon.org/calendar/2026/spring-2026/CharCoalSmoke-Edgar-Degass-Women-Ironing-and-The-Laundress-in-the-Norton-Simon-Museum-Ecocritically-5-23-2026-500PM