Lot Essay
Seated Bather Drying Her Neck represents one of the most distinctive subjects of Degas's late years; the nude woman who dries her hair or the back of her neck in the moments after her bath. Characteristically, the model is seen from behind, her back turned to establish her privacy and her face averted. Around the bather's figure are some of Degas's most familiar props; the zinc bath-tub, the low armchair upholstered in yellow ochre, the hazily-indicated washstand and the heavy bathrobe, each defining the model's activity as well as the space she occupies. Familiar too is the model's pose, as she crooks one arm to support her hair and swathes the other in towelling, leaning forward slightly to concentrate on her toilette.
Degas seems to have made his first statement of this pose as much as thirty years earlier, in the oil painting Women Combing their Hair now in the Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C. Several elements of the composition then appear in a monotype of the late 1870s, La tasse de chocolat, including the small table with cup and saucer, while a coloured variant of this print anticipates the pastel's mustard upholstery. In the late 1880s and early 1890s, a number of substantial works in pastel offer variations on the theme, exploring the possibilities of the horizontal format and a range of alternative positions for the woman's left arm. Closely related are a group of studies based on the mirror-image of the scene, with the model facing left rather than right, her left hand now supporting the towel.
In this important sense, Seated Bather Drying Her Neck evolved from one of the most long-established themes in Degas's career, while becoming part of an extraordinary proliferation of pastels and oils of the nude in his later years. In certain respects, however, the present work stands apart from the bulk of his late production. The vigorously drawn cup and saucer in the foreground is an unusual survival from earlier, more socially descriptive phases of Degas's art and may point to a deliberate recollection of an older study. Elsewhere, the flourishes of line and explosions of brilliant colour in Seated Bather Drying Her Neck have some precedents in his later pastels, but here they reach an almost feverish pitch of intensity. Drawn and re-drawn, the outlines of furniture and the contours of the woman's body energise the picture surface, even as they heighten the sculptural presence of the dominant forms. It was only at the turn of the century, or even as late as circa 1905, that Degas's art achieved such freedom of expression and such intensity of facture.
As we begin to understand more of Degas's late career, the technique and pictorial ambitions of works such as Seated Bather Drying Her Neck become increasingly evident. Beginning with a charcoal drawing, typically executed on tracing paper, the artist developed the principal structures of his composition in monochrome. At this stage, further tracings might be made from the sheet for the production of later variants, including mirror-image reversals, and additional strips of paper could be used to enlarge or modify the edges of the original drawings. One such strip can be seen at the right-hand side of the present work, probably attached by Degas's colleur Père Lézin, prior to laying down the enlarged sheet on card. Subsequently, the artist would embellish his subject in pastel, using fixative to stabilize successive layers and allowing the build-up of textures and subtleties of hue. In the most richly-worked late images, such as Seated Bather Drying Her Neck, crusts of colour and later strokes of charcoal give even greater vibrancy to the subject, evoking, or perhaps surpassing, the violent chromaticism of the Fauves and the gestural graphism of Matisse.
We are grateful to Richard Kendall for providing the catalogue entry for this pastel.
Femme s'essuyant has been requested for the exhibition Degas: The Late Work, which will take place at the National Gallery, London, May 22-Aug. 18, 1996. The exhibition will travel to The Art Institute of Chicago, Sept. 28, 1996-Jan. 4, 1997.
Degas seems to have made his first statement of this pose as much as thirty years earlier, in the oil painting Women Combing their Hair now in the Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C. Several elements of the composition then appear in a monotype of the late 1870s, La tasse de chocolat, including the small table with cup and saucer, while a coloured variant of this print anticipates the pastel's mustard upholstery. In the late 1880s and early 1890s, a number of substantial works in pastel offer variations on the theme, exploring the possibilities of the horizontal format and a range of alternative positions for the woman's left arm. Closely related are a group of studies based on the mirror-image of the scene, with the model facing left rather than right, her left hand now supporting the towel.
In this important sense, Seated Bather Drying Her Neck evolved from one of the most long-established themes in Degas's career, while becoming part of an extraordinary proliferation of pastels and oils of the nude in his later years. In certain respects, however, the present work stands apart from the bulk of his late production. The vigorously drawn cup and saucer in the foreground is an unusual survival from earlier, more socially descriptive phases of Degas's art and may point to a deliberate recollection of an older study. Elsewhere, the flourishes of line and explosions of brilliant colour in Seated Bather Drying Her Neck have some precedents in his later pastels, but here they reach an almost feverish pitch of intensity. Drawn and re-drawn, the outlines of furniture and the contours of the woman's body energise the picture surface, even as they heighten the sculptural presence of the dominant forms. It was only at the turn of the century, or even as late as circa 1905, that Degas's art achieved such freedom of expression and such intensity of facture.
As we begin to understand more of Degas's late career, the technique and pictorial ambitions of works such as Seated Bather Drying Her Neck become increasingly evident. Beginning with a charcoal drawing, typically executed on tracing paper, the artist developed the principal structures of his composition in monochrome. At this stage, further tracings might be made from the sheet for the production of later variants, including mirror-image reversals, and additional strips of paper could be used to enlarge or modify the edges of the original drawings. One such strip can be seen at the right-hand side of the present work, probably attached by Degas's colleur Père Lézin, prior to laying down the enlarged sheet on card. Subsequently, the artist would embellish his subject in pastel, using fixative to stabilize successive layers and allowing the build-up of textures and subtleties of hue. In the most richly-worked late images, such as Seated Bather Drying Her Neck, crusts of colour and later strokes of charcoal give even greater vibrancy to the subject, evoking, or perhaps surpassing, the violent chromaticism of the Fauves and the gestural graphism of Matisse.
We are grateful to Richard Kendall for providing the catalogue entry for this pastel.
Femme s'essuyant has been requested for the exhibition Degas: The Late Work, which will take place at the National Gallery, London, May 22-Aug. 18, 1996. The exhibition will travel to The Art Institute of Chicago, Sept. 28, 1996-Jan. 4, 1997.