otherwise sketchily painted work, even somewhat sinister in their overarticulation. The com- / /• posed and decorous though blank customer forms an eerie contrast to the fussy claws of the Edgar shop girl. Degas, At the The Millinery Shop, a pastel of 1882 by Degas (fig. 78), eliminates entirely the interaction Milliner, between buyer and seller. Degas marshals his suave compositional skills in a presentation of 1882-85, hats and, in this case, two milliners. We see that both figures are partially covered by the color- collection of ful, high-value, warm-hued straw hats and by the work table, and one woman is furthermore Mr. and Mrs. cut by the right edge of the picture. This familiar pattern of overlap and fragmentation works to Paul Mellon, persuade us of the documentary accuracy of the artist's observation. The two milliners in the Upperville, workroom are not shown as equals, and the differences between them are suggested and under- Va. scored by the many contrasts in the picture: the difference between the flowered and ribboned straw hat and the plain one; the difference in position and shape of the plain hat (a round shape seen from above) and the decorated hat (an irregular shape seen from the side); the difference between a woman working and a woman watching; the difference between a young woman (at left) and an older one; the difference between a hat supported by a stand with a slender, turned spiral base and a hat whose black ribbon covers any support and seems almost to float; the 129