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by Tom Gurney
Tom Gurney BSc (Hons) is an art history expert with over 20 years experience
Published on June 19, 2020 / Updated on September 28, 2026
Email: tomgurney1@gmail.com / Phone: +44 7429 011000
Degas Scene Of War In The Middle Ages: Introduction
The eye travels across a pale, open landscape, but the human scene is violent. Women are scattered on the ground at the left and in the foreground. Mounted figures cross the central space; one holds a bow. At the far right, another figure carries a woman on horseback. Edgar Degas painted Scène de guerre au Moyen Age—Scene of War in the Middle Ages—around 1865. The Musée d’Orsay holds the painting as RF 2208. It was Degas's first work shown at the Paris Salon, under that title, in 1865. [1][2] [5] [6]
This is a large, unsettling early work, far from the familiar shorthand of Degas as a painter of ballet. Its staging is deliberate: almost every figure occupies a distinct position, and the broad landscape links them without giving a clear account of one historical battle. The museum's record fixes the object and its materials. The exact event, if any, behind the imagery remains uncertain. [1][2]
The work at a glance
- ArtistEdgar Degas (1834–1917)
- TitleScène de guerre au Moyen Age / Scene of War in the Middle Ages
- DateAround 1865
- MediumOil and essence paint on paper mounted on canvas
- Size83.5 × 148.5 cm
- CollectionMusée d’Orsay, Paris
- AccessionRF 2208
- First public showingParis Salon, 1865, no. 2406
Contents
- Introduction
- At a Glance
- A landscape filled with danger
- A history painting at the Salon
- The uncertain story of Orléans and New Orleans
- Studies and the later collection
- Looking again
A landscape filled with danger
The painting's width allows Degas to spread the action into separate episodes. The left side contains several women, their bodies bent, fallen or exposed. In the middle, mounted figures travel through a comparatively open strip of ground. A lighter horse turns its head while the rider above it faces away. At right, the carried woman and the dark horse's sweeping tail lead the eye toward the frame. No single figure explains the whole scene. [1]
The emptiness between groups is as disturbing as their actions. An exposed patch of land separates the people on foot from the riders. Smoke or haze darkens the far left, and bare trees interrupt the horizon. The setting suggests aftermath and continuing threat at once. Yet it lacks the uniforms, banners or architecture that would make a particular conflict unmistakable. The title supplies a broad historical frame; the image does not supply a verified place or date within it. [1][2]
Degas paints the women in poses that expose vulnerability. Some turn away, one raises an arm, and figures lie across the foreground. The fact of violence is plain even though blood is not the painting's main visual language. Treating the nude bodies merely as exercises in anatomy would miss the unequal power within the scene. At the same time, we cannot give these unidentified figures biographies or reduce their positions to one documented incident. [1][2][3]
The horses and riders form a contrast. Their height and movement carry them above the people on foot. A bow held at centre sharpens the threat, while the figures at right continue beyond the cropped edge. The arrangement makes the viewer scan from victims to riders and back again. It is possible to describe this imbalance without pretending to know whether Degas intended an exact narrative moment. [1]
A history painting at the Salon
The Musée d’Orsay places Scene of War in the Middle Ages within Degas's early ambition to make history painting. That category drew subjects from the past, scripture or classical myth and traditionally occupied a high rank at the Salon. The museum notes that Degas studied many poses that could become parts of a larger composition. RF 2208 shows what such study could produce: several bodies distributed across a broad stage, rather than one central portrait. [2]
The Salon record matters because it gives this painting a firm public milestone. Orsay lists it as no. 2406 in 1865. A separate Orsay essay calls this Degas's Salon debut and says the work attracted little attention there. A quiet reception is a fact about that exhibition, not proof that the painting was unimportant to the artist. It remained in his studio and later entered a national collection. [1][3]
Degas's later reputation can make the early picture seem like an odd prelude. The museum's Degas and the Nude exhibition instead treats it as part of a longer investigation of the figure. Its women in strained positions anticipate a concern with bodies and poses, though the moral setting differs profoundly from later dancers or bathers. The comparison should not make violence into a mere stepping stone toward prettier subjects. This painting asks to be seen on its own terms as an image of endangered people. [2]
The medium is more complex than a simple “oil on canvas” label. Orsay records oil and essence paint on paper mounted on canvas. Paper was the painted surface, and the canvas is a later or accompanying support in the object's present construction. The museum does not say when the mounting occurred. A web reproduction also cannot reveal the condition of the paper or the exact order of painted layers. The full material label is therefore preferable to an invented technical story. [1]
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Watch on YouTubeThe uncertain story of Orléans and New Orleans
Orsay's collection record lists another title, Les malheurs de la ville Orléans (“The Misfortunes of the City of Orléans”). Yet an Orsay discussion of Degas and wartime violence calls that alternative title erroneous. Its account raises a possible link to atrocities against women in New Orleans during the American Civil War, where Degas had family connections, but phrases this as an interpretation rather than a proven source. The two city names are easy to collapse in English. Neither should replace the painting's accepted title as a confident location. [1][3]
The museum's Degas and the Nude account is similarly cautious. It says the events represented are uncertain and describes the proposed New Orleans connection as a long-standing reading. Because there is no decisive identification in the record, this page does not claim that RF 2208 depicts a specific assault in France or Louisiana. The subject can still be discussed clearly: mounted aggressors and vulnerable women occupy an invented medieval setting. [2][3]
That uncertainty is useful when looking. Degas does not give us the direct evidence of a news illustration. He uses a past-looking landscape, horses, bodies and gestures to organize a scene that may allude to contemporary violence. We can ask how historical distance affects the image's force, and why the artist chose this arrangement, without turning an interpretive possibility into a settled fact. [2][3]
Studies and the later collection
Orsay records a separate drawing titled Scène de guerre au Moyen-Age, accession RF 15534, in graphite and grey wash. The drawing is much smaller than the oil and belongs to the museum's graphic arts collection. It is useful evidence of Degas working through the subject, but its materials, dimensions and inventory number must not be assigned to this painting. The museum's exhibition account also discusses preparatory studies for individual female poses. [2][4]
RF 2208 remained in Degas's studio and appeared in the first sale of his studio works in May 1918. The Musée du Luxembourg acquired it that year. It was later assigned to the Louvre, displayed through the Jeu de Paume, and transferred to the Musée d’Orsay in 1986. These steps explain why a work first shown at the Salon can now be traced under a modern museum accession. [1]
The owner currently places the painting in Room 13 on the ground floor of the Musée d’Orsay. Display information can change, so a visitor should check the museum's current record before travelling specifically to see it. The accession and detailed medium remain the stable way to distinguish it from drawings and photographs with similar names. [1][4]
Looking again
Start at the women on the left, cross the open ground toward the horses, then return to the figures lying at the bottom edge. Notice how the empty interval makes the riders look more powerful. Follow the bare trees and hazy background: they establish a landscape, but not a reliably named battlefield. The painting sustains attention across its full width rather than resolving in a single gesture. [1]
Scene of War in the Middle Ages is an early Degas history painting with a secure owner record, date range, Salon appearance and material description. Its specific story is not secure. Orsay's changing discussion of Orléans and New Orleans makes that limit especially important. Looking closely at RF 2208 allows a direct account of danger, composition and figure study while leaving the uncertain historical explanation open. [1][2][3]
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Discussion
Share what you notice in Degas’s scene of war in the middle ages.
Reader Insights
How does the open ground separate the women from the mounted figures?
Where does Degas direct attention across the wide scene?
What in the image identifies a specific place, if anything?
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References
- Musée d’Orsay, Scène de guerre au Moyen Age, RF 2208, owner record for date, medium, dimensions, display, Salon appearance and provenance. View source
- Musée d’Orsay, Degas et le nu, early history painting, figure studies and uncertainty about the represented event. View source
- Musée d’Orsay, “Manet, Degas et la violence de la guerre”, Salon debut, reception and cautious treatment of the New Orleans theory and erroneous alternative title. View source
- Musée d’Orsay, Scène de guerre au Moyen-Age, RF 15534, separate preparatory drawing. View source
- Edgar Degas, Scene of War in the Middle Ages, circa 1865, oil and essence paint on paper mounted on canvas. Musée d’Orsay, Paris, RF 2208. Collection record. View source
- Photograph by Sailko, CC BY 3.0. Display image resized and recompressed from the original; artwork remains in its photographed frame. View source · View source
