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Lot Essay
In the last two decades of his career, Degas' depictions of bathers were among his favourite subjects, second only in frequency to his studies of dancers. Both series enabled the artist to evoke the expressiveness of the human figure and specifically to render the female body in a variety of poses and environments, from public performances on stage to private moments after the bath.
The theme of women at their toilette appealed to Degas as both an opportunity to engage in methodical studies of an individual subject and an occasion to present distinctly modern women in domestic environments. This work exemplifies a statement made in 1886 by art critic Théodore Duret, who wrote that Degas 'has found new situations for the nude, in interiors, among rich fabrics and cushioned furniture. He has no goddesses to offer, none of the legendary heroines of tradition, but the woman as she is, occupied with her ordinary habits of life or of the Toilette...' (quoted in R. Kendall, Degas: Beyond Impressionism, exh. cat., The Art Institute of Chicago, 1996, p. 150).
The present drawing serves as a study for the pastel, Femme s'essuyant, 1899 (Lemoisne, no. 1342). In both works the woman is captured in a seemingly undisturbed moment of solitude, leaning forward with her left arm raised as she wraps her other arm around her mid-section to towel off after a bath. She gazes downward, her upswept hair accentuating the nape of her neck, creating a sinuous line down her slightly curved back. The present work is also closely related to two other pastels (Lemoisne, nos. 1341 and 1343) of women drying off after a bath, where Degas plays with the highlights along their backs and translates the sensual movement of the bather manoeuvring the towel across her body, cropping the composition with the bathtub in the background.
The theme of women at their toilette appealed to Degas as both an opportunity to engage in methodical studies of an individual subject and an occasion to present distinctly modern women in domestic environments. This work exemplifies a statement made in 1886 by art critic Théodore Duret, who wrote that Degas 'has found new situations for the nude, in interiors, among rich fabrics and cushioned furniture. He has no goddesses to offer, none of the legendary heroines of tradition, but the woman as she is, occupied with her ordinary habits of life or of the Toilette...' (quoted in R. Kendall, Degas: Beyond Impressionism, exh. cat., The Art Institute of Chicago, 1996, p. 150).
The present drawing serves as a study for the pastel, Femme s'essuyant, 1899 (Lemoisne, no. 1342). In both works the woman is captured in a seemingly undisturbed moment of solitude, leaning forward with her left arm raised as she wraps her other arm around her mid-section to towel off after a bath. She gazes downward, her upswept hair accentuating the nape of her neck, creating a sinuous line down her slightly curved back. The present work is also closely related to two other pastels (Lemoisne, nos. 1341 and 1343) of women drying off after a bath, where Degas plays with the highlights along their backs and translates the sensual movement of the bather manoeuvring the towel across her body, cropping the composition with the bathtub in the background.