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Lot Essay
Degas’ depictions of nudes bathing serve as perfect foils to his other dominant theme of the ballet dancer. His bathers display the female body stripped of pretense and grace and demonstrate a human, vulnerable state of being that relies on a tension between the natural appeal of the female figure and the banality of bathing. What may appear to have been competing interests in the dancer and bather actually contributed a remarkable unity in the overall profile of Degas’ oeuvre. On one hand, the dancers represent Degas' engagement with a public spectacle governed by august traditions and the rigorous discipline of a great art form; on the other, the bathers reveal Degas' experience of a most private encounter, in which he observes the exposed sensuality of womanhood in an intimately shared environment.
There is a mysterious sense of secrecy in his domestic bathing scenes, in which the women are almost always seen from behind, their faces averted or otherwise anonymous. The subject of the present work leans over her washbasin, bare back exposed to the viewer with one hand resting on her hip as her other arm braces her weight against the counter. She is fully engaged in her act, disinterested or unaware of her voyeurs—the artist and the audience. Treating the nude by means of the bather subject appears to have provided Degas that measure of detachment he required in order to work well, and moreover appealed to his growing sense of historicism. However, unlike the dramatic narratives that often contextualized classical nudes, there is no element of surprise, scandal or even invasion associated with this seemingly private moment.
In his essay, The Body Observed, Xavier Rey wrote, “The nude assumed a predominant place in Degas’ work and the procedures and some of the motifs he established guided his stylistic evolution until the end of his artistic activity…developing a formula that was entirely his own—the adaption of a traditional genre to the reality of modern life” (Degas and the Nude, exh. cat., Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 2011, p. 95). Degas chose to depict his subjects in a manner that was stark and realistic, rendered through the lens of an impartial observer. This lack of narrative allows Degas’ studies of bathers to evolve into an earnest exploration of the female form in and of itself.
The curves of the figure in Femme à sa toilette direct the composition, the hard lines of her body give her presence and a weight that solidifies her as the primary focal point and most articulated aspect of the work. Her surroundings are comprised of looser, more gestural lines with vertical modeling that trickles down the composition as if the contents of the basin were overflowing. The touches of blue pastel contribute to this water effect and add a subtle sense of depth to the soft charcoal rendering. The aloof allure of the female back, in this specific and disengaged act of toilette was a recurring motif in Degas’s work. The coy yet candid pose perfectly articulates the contrast between the elegant and unrefined that Degas so often sought throughout his complex artistic analysis of the feminine form.
There is a mysterious sense of secrecy in his domestic bathing scenes, in which the women are almost always seen from behind, their faces averted or otherwise anonymous. The subject of the present work leans over her washbasin, bare back exposed to the viewer with one hand resting on her hip as her other arm braces her weight against the counter. She is fully engaged in her act, disinterested or unaware of her voyeurs—the artist and the audience. Treating the nude by means of the bather subject appears to have provided Degas that measure of detachment he required in order to work well, and moreover appealed to his growing sense of historicism. However, unlike the dramatic narratives that often contextualized classical nudes, there is no element of surprise, scandal or even invasion associated with this seemingly private moment.
In his essay, The Body Observed, Xavier Rey wrote, “The nude assumed a predominant place in Degas’ work and the procedures and some of the motifs he established guided his stylistic evolution until the end of his artistic activity…developing a formula that was entirely his own—the adaption of a traditional genre to the reality of modern life” (Degas and the Nude, exh. cat., Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 2011, p. 95). Degas chose to depict his subjects in a manner that was stark and realistic, rendered through the lens of an impartial observer. This lack of narrative allows Degas’ studies of bathers to evolve into an earnest exploration of the female form in and of itself.
The curves of the figure in Femme à sa toilette direct the composition, the hard lines of her body give her presence and a weight that solidifies her as the primary focal point and most articulated aspect of the work. Her surroundings are comprised of looser, more gestural lines with vertical modeling that trickles down the composition as if the contents of the basin were overflowing. The touches of blue pastel contribute to this water effect and add a subtle sense of depth to the soft charcoal rendering. The aloof allure of the female back, in this specific and disengaged act of toilette was a recurring motif in Degas’s work. The coy yet candid pose perfectly articulates the contrast between the elegant and unrefined that Degas so often sought throughout his complex artistic analysis of the feminine form.