File:Degas - At the Jeweller's, circa 1887.jpg

English: 35.228DRAWINGSpastelThe JewelsDegas, Edgar (1834 - 1917, French)France, Paris (place made)circa 1887pastel on paperFrenchframed: 840 mm x 610 mm x 60 mm; unframed: 712 mm x 490 mmWe know that Degas often accompanied his female friends on their shopping expeditions and that these trips inspired him with ideas for his art. This particular subject is unusual, perhaps unique, in Degas’s work, because it shows a visit to a fashionable jewellery shop on the boulevards of Paris. Two women, dressed in outdoor clothes, are seated at a long table on which are placed three open scallop-shaped jewel cases.Degas quite deliberately set out to document the social domestic world of contemporary women. He produced a whole series of paintings, pastels and drawings which show the leisure activities of his female friends and acquaintances: at the race-track or theatre, visiting art galleries and museums, walking in the park, or, on a more intimate level, contemplating purchases in hat-shops or at couturiers.One of the most noticeable characteristics of Degas’s images of women is that many of the women he depicts are engaged in the act of looking. Here the figure in profile carefully examines a richly encrusted brooch or clasp which she holds between the thumb and forefinger of her right hand. Her gaze is attentive - she isn’t smiling or speaking.Degas was a perfectionist. If a work remained in his studio he would be tempted to return to it again and again, making changes and trying to improve it. One of the important things about the medium of pastel was that it allowed him to do just that - he could resume or abandon a work at will. While Degas has brought most areas of The Jewels to a high degree of finish, we can see on the far right that he was in the process of revising his composition.He has partially erased the left shoulder and upper arm of the central figure, adding a third woman to the lower-right foreground. She has been rapidly sketched in with brown pastel. We can make out the outline of her head, with quick lines suggesting her mouth, nose and right eye. Her right elbow rests on the table, her hands clasped in front of her. For whatever reason Degas abandoned the work at that point.Like many of the works by Degas in The Burrell Collection, The Jewels was in the artist’s studio at his death. Five sales of these works were held in 1918 and 1919. The Jewels was included in the first sale, organised by the Galerie Georges Petit, from May 6- 8, 1918. It sold for 20,000 French francs. Sir William Burrell purchased it from the London dealer Lefèvre in 1923 for £625.