拍品专文
Degas discovered monotypes nearly twenty years after his first etchings. He was introduced to the technique by the Vicomte Ludovic Napoléon Lepic who was an amateur anthropologist, dog-breeder and etcher - a member of the Société des Aquafortistes founded in 1862. (Degas' first monotype being a collaborative effort, it bears both his own signature and that of his friend.)
By the time the first monotypes appear, in about 1874, Degas was already a mature artist, exploring and adapting the mixed media techniques that are so characteristic of his later work. These small black and white images (so appealing to Degas since the slow-drying nature of the ink allowed them to be worked and re-worked again) in both technique and in subject matter are the starting point of his drawing over a printed base which culminate in the great Femme au Toilette series of large pastels.
Degas referred to these unique prints as 'dessins faits avec l'encre grasse et imprimeés'. The approximately 400 images catalogued after his death had been known only to an intimate circle of artists, friends and collectors and a number of these were destroyed before the series of studio sales. About 237 monotypes were offered at the Vente d'Estampes at Galerie Manzi Joyant and they were purchased almost entirely by three people - Gustave Pellet, Ambroise Vollard (the print dealers and publishers) and Marcel Guérin (art historian and collector).
This recently re-discovered monotype combines two major themes in Degas' work - that of the brothel (the only subject to have been executed exclusively in this one medium by the artist) and that of women at their toilette. These are intimate works of intimate subjects. Their small size and monochrome palette tie them to illustration and photography as does the chosen viewpoint of life observed 'through the keyhole'. Le Tub is made up of faceless figures. We recognise the woman by her pale form and the familiarity of her gesture. She is a calm compositional foil to the nervous energy that comprises the figure of the observer or client who sits, head in hands seemingly overcome with intensity before this calm and modern Susannah. This prinicipally 'dark-field' monotype is both a snapshot of an interior with all its domestic drama and a still-life where figures are reduced to a series of oval and vertical forms.
By the time the first monotypes appear, in about 1874, Degas was already a mature artist, exploring and adapting the mixed media techniques that are so characteristic of his later work. These small black and white images (so appealing to Degas since the slow-drying nature of the ink allowed them to be worked and re-worked again) in both technique and in subject matter are the starting point of his drawing over a printed base which culminate in the great Femme au Toilette series of large pastels.
Degas referred to these unique prints as 'dessins faits avec l'encre grasse et imprimeés'. The approximately 400 images catalogued after his death had been known only to an intimate circle of artists, friends and collectors and a number of these were destroyed before the series of studio sales. About 237 monotypes were offered at the Vente d'Estampes at Galerie Manzi Joyant and they were purchased almost entirely by three people - Gustave Pellet, Ambroise Vollard (the print dealers and publishers) and Marcel Guérin (art historian and collector).
This recently re-discovered monotype combines two major themes in Degas' work - that of the brothel (the only subject to have been executed exclusively in this one medium by the artist) and that of women at their toilette. These are intimate works of intimate subjects. Their small size and monochrome palette tie them to illustration and photography as does the chosen viewpoint of life observed 'through the keyhole'. Le Tub is made up of faceless figures. We recognise the woman by her pale form and the familiarity of her gesture. She is a calm compositional foil to the nervous energy that comprises the figure of the observer or client who sits, head in hands seemingly overcome with intensity before this calm and modern Susannah. This prinicipally 'dark-field' monotype is both a snapshot of an interior with all its domestic drama and a still-life where figures are reduced to a series of oval and vertical forms.