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Lot Essay
In contrast to Degas’ images of spectacle and sport, the artist’s bathers turn an eye on the private and banal. As one of his most beloved subjects, the artist explored the theme of the female bather with increasing fascination, repeating the subject in drawing, monotype and sculpture. This reiteration was paramount for Degas—each new work an opportunity to perfect the female form. As an academically trained painter, Degas would have been well versed in the tradition of French masters such as Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres and Nicolas Poussin, who used recurrent poses as an intellectual pursuit, attempting to reach the highest level of refinement in their work.
Degas’ particular concern with movement and the female form as it naturally exists is seen in the present work, La sortie du bain. Here, a woman sits frozen in action amidst a bundle of fabric, having just finished her bath which stands right beyond her. She is not inviting the viewer in, nor does she appear to realize she is being observed, solely concerned with her corporeal task. The patterned bed cushion on which she sits gives subtle context to the interior, details which emphasize the supple, fleshy pink of the bather’s skin and highlight the expansiveness of her movements. Soft, natural folds and creases in the body are delicately rendered in pastel with a masterful control of the medium.
La sortie du bain, like each new repetition of the bathing motif, reveals Degas’ captivation with capturing the female figure. In the present work, it is the structure of the body which is given notable focus. Each joint, such as the neck, shoulders, and elbow is emphasized, exposing Degas’ evident reflection on the inner construction of the form. From the torsion of her shoulders, to the tensity in her right foot, the motion of the body is conveyed through the informed execution of the figure’s anatomy. The artist revisits this gesticulation of the body several times throughout the 1890s, each time reworking and refining the posture. “For Degas, the repetition of the figure…affirmed his own working method. Repetition was fundamental to his approach” (S.A. Stein, The Private Collection of Edgar Degas, exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1997). We see this practice of Degas reflected in Après le bain: Femme s'essuyant, 1895 (The Courtauld Gallery, London). Here, Degas renders the same three-quarter view of the figure, but has captured a moment that appears to be seconds after the instance rendered in La sortie du bain. The woman here has moved on from toweling off her arm and now twists to reach her torso, forcing the raised arm higher, and the head down. Degas even goes so far as to rework the pose in three dimensions, sculpting the reaching movement as seen in Femme assise dans un fauteuil s'essuyant l'aisselle gauche, circa 1895 (The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York), once again concerned with how the body hinges on itself, taking up new space and continuing a sequential series to perfect his mastery.
Degas’ particular concern with movement and the female form as it naturally exists is seen in the present work, La sortie du bain. Here, a woman sits frozen in action amidst a bundle of fabric, having just finished her bath which stands right beyond her. She is not inviting the viewer in, nor does she appear to realize she is being observed, solely concerned with her corporeal task. The patterned bed cushion on which she sits gives subtle context to the interior, details which emphasize the supple, fleshy pink of the bather’s skin and highlight the expansiveness of her movements. Soft, natural folds and creases in the body are delicately rendered in pastel with a masterful control of the medium.
La sortie du bain, like each new repetition of the bathing motif, reveals Degas’ captivation with capturing the female figure. In the present work, it is the structure of the body which is given notable focus. Each joint, such as the neck, shoulders, and elbow is emphasized, exposing Degas’ evident reflection on the inner construction of the form. From the torsion of her shoulders, to the tensity in her right foot, the motion of the body is conveyed through the informed execution of the figure’s anatomy. The artist revisits this gesticulation of the body several times throughout the 1890s, each time reworking and refining the posture. “For Degas, the repetition of the figure…affirmed his own working method. Repetition was fundamental to his approach” (S.A. Stein, The Private Collection of Edgar Degas, exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1997). We see this practice of Degas reflected in Après le bain: Femme s'essuyant, 1895 (The Courtauld Gallery, London). Here, Degas renders the same three-quarter view of the figure, but has captured a moment that appears to be seconds after the instance rendered in La sortie du bain. The woman here has moved on from toweling off her arm and now twists to reach her torso, forcing the raised arm higher, and the head down. Degas even goes so far as to rework the pose in three dimensions, sculpting the reaching movement as seen in Femme assise dans un fauteuil s'essuyant l'aisselle gauche, circa 1895 (The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York), once again concerned with how the body hinges on itself, taking up new space and continuing a sequential series to perfect his mastery.