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Edgar Degas, After the Bath, Woman Drying Herself, 1890–95, National Gallery, London

After the Bath, Woman Drying Herself is a pastel drawing by Edgar Degas, made between 1890 and 1895. Since 1959, it has been showcased in the National Gallery, London in an exhibition organised by Richard Kendall titled Degas Beyond Impressionism. This work is part of Degas's Impressionist series, where he depicts a collection of female nudes in pastels and oils. Originally, Degas exhibited his works at Impressionist shows in Paris, where he gained a distinct reputation and acquired a loyal following. Degas’s nude works, including After the Bath, Woman Drying Herself, continue to spark controversy among art critiques in his portrayal of the female body.

Artwork Edgar Degas often used photographs and sketches as a preliminary step, studying the light and the composition for his paintings. His focus on the effect of light in the composition of his works was largely due to his deteriorating eyesight; he used light to magnify and exaggerate his subjects. Degas applied numerous pastel layers to create a light-bearing effect that makes the woman in After the Bath, Woman Drying Herself appear somewhat translucent. The heavily worked pastel creates deep textures and blurred lines, emphasising the figure's movement.

The work depicts a woman sitting on white towels spread over a wicker chair, with her back to the viewer. Her body is arched and slightly twisted, creating a tension in her back, accentuated by the deep line of her backbone. One hand dries her neck with a towel, presumably after getting out of the tin bath in the corner of the room. The other arm leans out to hold onto the chair for support. The space is defined by the vertical and diagonal lines where the floor and walls meet.

Materials
The analysis of the painting materials is described in the book by Bomford et al. Degas used a multitude of commercially available pastel crayons many of which consisted of several individual pigments. Predominant pigments in this painting are Prussian blue, cadmium yellow and ochres. The drawing was made on several pieces of paper mounted on cardboard. Degas may have started with a smaller composition which he extended as he worked, requiring more paper. The artwork measures 103.5 × 98.5 centimetres (40.7 × 38.8 in).

History

The work is part of a series of photographs, preliminary sketches and completed works in pastels and oils by Degas from this period. The series depicts women dancing or bathing, some showing women in awkward unnatural positions. The series differs from the work of other artists' depicting female nudity in the sense that Degas contorts women's bodies in unusual positions to make viewers uncomfortable. This discomfort causes viewers to avert their gaze to respect the privacy of the subject depicted in this highly vulnerable, exposing moment. Degas, speaking about these works, said, he intended to create a feeling in the viewer: "as if you looked through a keyhole." Degas is believed to have frequently documented the lives of Parisian women in brothels; therefore, he works to preserve their anonymity with the extensive use of shadows. This notion of "privacy and exclusion" of the subject parallels Degas's own desire to live a life in the shadows, hiding from the public and valuing his privacy. The woman’s face is hidden, so the emphasis of the piece rests on the woman’s nude body.

Degas included many works of female nudes bathing in the last Impressionist exhibition in 1886. Nine of Degas' pastel drawings of women at their bath were exhibited by Theo Van Gogh at Galerie Boussod et Valadon in 1888. The work was shown at the Lefevre Gallery in 1950 and was bought for the collection of the National Gallery, London in 1959. A less highly worked example of a similar subject is in the Courtauld Gallery, and other works in the series are in many public museums.

Other similar postures After The Bath, woman drying her neck (1895–1898) (Musée d'Orsay, Paris) Woman Washing After The Bath, pastel and charcoal on paper. Influences

The work had a considerable influence on Francis Bacon, most noticeably on his triptychs Three Figures in a Room (1964, Centre Pompidou, Paris) and Three Studies of the Male Back (1970, Kunsthaus Zürich). The Tate Gallery says "For Bacon [it] was indeed something of a talisman. It epitomised Degas's approach to a larger obsession the two artists shared with the plasticity of the body, its potential for the most varied forms of articulation, in movement and repose." The work was one of three central nudes chosen by Bacon in his "The Artist's Choice" exhibition at the National Gallery in 1985, shown between Velázquez's Rokeby Venus and Michelangelo's Entombment. Art historian and curator Michael Peppiatt quoted Bacon thus: "I love Degas. I think his pastels are among the greatest things ever made. I think they're far greater than his paintings."

Criticism and Praises
Degas's candid portrayal of women in vulnerable states caused controversy among art critics. Some critics believed that works from Degas’s Impressionist series, including After the Bath, Woman Drying Herself, were tactless in their depiction of the female nude. These female nudes lacked any kind of idealisation, which deviated from the standard academic convention of portraying nude bodies in the most favourable light. Other critics, namely Octave Mirbeau, commended Degas for his bold break from the conventional artistic style of works at the Salon (Paris). He praised Degas for rejecting the temptation to portray these women in an unrealistically idealised light; in which case, his works would have been widely commercially successful in their unchallenging state of capitalising on the beauty of the female nude body.

Others critiqued Degas for his objectivity in portraying subjects, making his job scientific in nature rather than artistic. Degas captured extremely intimate moments in time with great precision and accuracy, but he chose to not over-sexualise his subjects. Curator Richard Kendall believed that Degas's works were particularly special because they were so non-erotic in nature. This fuelled Carol Armstrong's argument that the nude bodies were meant to exist "in a world of their own" and were not meant to be sexualised by the viewer. Degas's work, After the Bath, Woman Drying Herself, served as a prime example of Degas's controversial style of depicting female nudity.

Degas and Impressionism
Degas could not properly categorise his style before the Impressionist shows because although he painted realist subjects, he did not enjoy the aspect of showmanship, which differentiated him from other nineteenth century painters of the realism movement. He tended to shy away from the public eye and lived a rather reclusive lifestyle, which is why is often called the “odd man out” in the art world.

Notes

"Key facts: After the Bath, Woman drying herself". The National Gallery, London. Archived from the original on 4 March 2015. Retrieved 19 October 2018.

Jones, Jonathan (30 October 2004). "How did the sexless Degas create such sexy images?". The Guardian.

Hilaire-Germain-Edgar Degas | After the Bath, Woman drying herself | NG6295 | The National Gallery, London

After the Bath, Woman Drying Her Back (Getty Museum)

"Museum of Fine Arts Boston, with Comprehensive Exhibit of Edgar Degas Nudes | ARTES MAGAZINE". Archived from the original on 6 November 2014. Retrieved 24 July 2014.

Francis Bacon: Back to Degas | Tate

A&A | After the bath – woman drying herself

Bomford D, Herring S, Kirby J, Riopelle C, Roy A. Art in the Making: Degas. London: National Gallery Company, 2004, pp. 124-29

Edgar Degas, After the Bath, Woman drying herself, illustrated pigment analysis at ColourLex

References Wikimedia Commons has media related to Pastels of bathers by Edgar Degas.

After the Bath, Woman drying herself, about 1890–5, Hilaire-Germain-Edgar Degas, National Gallery After the Bath, Woman Drying Her Back, photograph, The J. Paul Getty Museum Through a keyhole, The Guardian, 30 October 2004 Francis Bacon: Back to Degas, Rothenstein Lecture 2011, Martin Hammer, 11 May 2012, Tate Papers Issue 17 Museum of Fine Arts Boston, with Comprehensive Exhibit of Edgar Degas Nudes, Artes Magazine, 12 December 2011 After the bath – woman drying herself, Courtauld Gallery Edgar Degas, After the Bath, Woman drying herself at ColourLex vte Edgar Degas

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