Woman Seated in an Armchair c. 1903 - 1921

This bronze sculpture of a woman seated in an armchair was made by Edgar Degas, though the date of its creation is not known. It looks like she’s interrupted, mid-thought or mid-gesture. Her right arm is raised, maybe she’s about to say something? Or perhaps she’s just stretching, lost in her own world. The dark bronze gives the piece a weighty, solid feel, but Degas's handwork brings so much movement to the surface. I can almost feel his fingerprints in the clay. I imagine Degas, working and reworking the figure, adding and subtracting material, searching for the perfect balance between stillness and motion. Like other artists, he was probably wrestling with how to capture life, trying to freeze a moment in time. There’s a connection here, to Rodin and other sculptors who explored the human form with such honesty. Artists are always responding to each other, across time, it’s an ongoing conversation. And that’s the beauty of art, right? It’s never really finished, it keeps evolving in our minds, inviting us to bring our own experiences and interpretations to the mix.