How do we engage in the aesthetic analysis of works of art?

How do we make sense out of works of art? Very often a work's vital statistics (names, dates, styles) and its creator's views (if known) are the only items of information available. Can we only comment about a work's subject and the degree to which it is liked or disliked?

It is as if the question "what does a work of art express" can only be answered by citing its vital statistics, discovering the intentions of the artist or, even more frequently, by leaving it to personal preference; i.e., whatever one believes it expresses.

While these approaches have their merits they also have one great limitation: the expressive import of the work -- its content that involves us most profoundly in its aesthetic character, the primary basis for its emotional appeal -- is seldom investigated.

The most productive response to the question "what does a work of art express" is simply that it expresses itself! The feelings or thoughts evoked as a result of contemplating the work should be based primarily upon what is actually seen in the work; i.e. what belongs to the work, its actual properties. The sequence of questions should be: what do we actually see? how is what is seen organized? and what emotions and ideas are evoked as a result of what has been observed? In what follows, how these questions can be answered will be demonstrated.

The example to be used for this exercise is a reproduction of an oil painting by Edgar Degas, The Ironers, created in 1884, which is in the collection of the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena, California.