[3] Edgar Degas made his first and only trip to the United States and the birthplace of his mother in the fall of 1872 at the behest of his brother René.

[5] During his stay in New Orleans, Edgar Degas resided in Michel Musson's rented mansion in the Garden District.

[9] Michel Musson and his partners ran a cotton factoring firm whose office was in close proximity to Achille and René's business.

William Bell and his business partner Frederick Nash Ogden worked in the cotton trade close by.

[11][12] Despite emancipation and the end of the plantation-slave complex in 1865, newly freed black farmers were still the main labor force in cotton production and were subjected to oppressive sharecropping systems and continued political persecution during Reconstruction.

Members of the Musson and Degas families owned slaves, supported the Confederacy, and had ties to and participated in white supremacist groups during Reconstruction.

[13] In 1873, Musson was briefly a supporter of the Louisiana Unification Movement, which sought interracial cooperation and public integration.

[15] Before his departure, Degas found a new subject to paint and wrote to Tissot, "After having wasted time in the family trying to do portraits in the worst conditions of the day that I have ever found or imagined, I have attached myself to a fairly vigorous picture… Interiors of a Cotton Buyers Office in New Orleans… What a lot of good this absence of Paris has done in any case, my dear friend, I have made the most of it.

"[16] While it was earlier believed to have been painted on his return to France,[17] Degas finished A Cotton Office in New Orleans in America and arranged for its travel across the Atlantic.

William Bell stands next to the long table in the middle, cotton in his hands as he encourages a customer to sample it himself.

Other figures include Musson's business partners and associates, bookkeeping or wearing dusters while they inspect cotton.

Cotton is represented in its raw form and its transformation into textiles is suggested through the men's finished clothing along with the various papers scattered around the office.

[22] Art historian Marilyn Brown points out that even though the production of cotton is not shown in the painting, "Degas's Cotton Office ultimately represses, disavows, and dematerializes the oppression of black labor by transforming its white product into a commodity sold by anxious white men.

[24] A Cotton Office exhibits a link to Degas's 1872 painting Dance Class at the Opera on the rue Le Peletier as both works feature a visible empty chair.

However, the Panic of 1873 and its resulting economic depression had an adverse effect on the global cotton trade and the art market in both England and France.

[29] In addition, Paul Durand-Ruel, who supported many of the Impressionist artists including Degas, suffered financial losses in 1874 and temporarily ceased his purchases.

Some critics favored A Cotton Office to the other works of Degas and other artists in the exhibition for its relatively finished quality.

"[33] Similarly, Alfred de Lostalt published in his review of the 1876 exhibition that A Cotton Office "is also a good picture which has nothing to do with revolutionary methods.

[37] The painting, which depicted a dynamic and somewhat unconventional scene of workers in a cotton office, was praised for its unique composition and innovative use of space.

However, the work was not commercially successful at the time, partly due to its departure from traditional, more idealized depictions of labor and life.

Over time, however, the piece gained recognition as one of his most significant works, reflecting his evolving style and departure from classical themes.