Closely linked to the Impressionist movement, Hilaire-Germain-Edgar Degas (1834–1917) depicted the history of 1800s Paris, but often switched to creations of everyday life. He is acknowledged as the master of drawing the human figure in motion. Degas worked in many mediums, preferring pastel to all others. He is perhaps best known for his paintings, drawings, and bronzes of ballerinas and of race horses. But he also brought to extraordinary life the simple activities of laundresses, which reflect the growth of the bourgeoisie and the development of service industries, and milliners, which reflect the flourishing Parisian fashion scene. Degas was hailed for his genius and despised for some of his views, but always respected for his gifts.

Among the great Dutch artists of the 17th century, Johannes Vermeer (1632–1675) is now second in renown only to Rembrandt, but he made little mark during his lifetime and then long languished in obscurity. Little is known about his life, and his paintings are rare, yet his works document life in 17th-century Holland like no other. No one is even sure what he looked like, yet we know well The Girl with the Pearl Earring and other portraits. For much of his career, Vermeer painted serene and harmonious images of domestic life that for their beauty of composition, handling, and treatment of light raise him into a different class from any other Dutch genre painter. The majority show one or two figures in a room lit from the onlooker’s left, engaged in domestic or recreational tasks.