Home/Symbols/White linen and steamWhite linen and steam SymbolismMaterial in flux—wrinkled-to-smooth; cleanliness, renewal, and the visible trace of labor.Common ThemesThe modern lens: urban life & speedMimesis vs. abstraction (truth vs. artifice)Medium reflexivity (art about art)Class & inequalityLabor & workMetamorphosis & transformationArtworks Featuring This SymbolWoman IroningEdgar Degas (c. 1876–1887)In Woman Ironing, Degas builds a modern icon of labor through <strong>contre‑jour</strong> light and a forceful diagonal from shoulder to iron. The worker’s silhouette, red-brown dress, and the cool, steamy whites around her turn repetition into <strong>ritualized transformation</strong>—wrinkled cloth to crisp order <sup>[1]</sup><sup>[2]</sup>.
