NARRATOR:
A woman in bright red slippers dries herself after a bath. Her room is unmistakably a boudoir. There’s a shallow tub containing water and a sponge on the floor in front of her, and perfume bottles on the dresser. In the cold glow of gaslight, her towel and body cast overlapping shadows on the bed behind her. Patterned wallpaper and carpeting only add to the visual complexity. The open door suggests that someone—a client or room mate—might enter at any moment. On the right, a starched white petticoat juts into the quiet scene. This fracturing technique was used often by Degas, a rejection of traditional paintings that had stable and centrally framed compositions.
From 1875 onward, the female nude figured prominently in Degas’ work, particularly in his depictions of brothel scenes. For this image, he first created a monotype, a black and white print made from an ink drawing on a metal plate. He made a second, fainter print, then painted over it in colorful pastels.
Claude Monet probably first saw this picture shortly after it was finished, at the Impressionist exhibition of 1877. Almost 20 years later, he tried to obtain it from a dealer for his collection. The dealer suggested that Monet pay for it with a painting of his own. But apparently, Degas was reluctant to make the exchange, and Monet bought the painting instead.
Woman Drying Herself after the Bath
1876-1877
Edgar Degas (French, 1834-1917)
On View
One critic called Degas’s submissions to the 1877 Impressionist exhibition “precise notes on the intimate, daily story of our epoch.” None was more intimate or precise than this scene of a woman fresh from her bath. The picture seems to have been among the artist’s first experiments with the use of pastel over monotype. After applying ink to a metal plate with his fingertips, Degas printed two sheets from the plate, producing a pair of compositionally identical “drawings.” He worked up the second of these with pastels, creating the luminous effects of the starched petticoat at right, the water in the tub, and the model’s bare flesh. The ink of the underlying monotype remains visible only in the lower left-hand corner, just above the artist’s signature.
Details
- Artist Name: Edgar Degas (French, 1834-1917)
- Title: Woman Drying Herself after the Bath
- Date: 1876-1877
- Medium: Pastel over monotype on laid paper
- Dimensions: 18 x 23-3/4 in. (45.7 x 60.3 cm)
- Credit Line: The Norton Simon Foundation
- Accession Number: F.1978.04.P
- Copyright: © The Norton Simon Foundation
Object Information
[Probably with Boussod, Valadon et Cie, Paris, prior to April 1887, when it was acquired from the gallery by];
Claude Monet (1840-1926), Giverny, still in 1922;
Michel Monet, Giverny, in 1935;
Georges Wildenstein, Paris, by 1937.
[Wildenstein & Co., Inc., New York; by 1944, offered 26 January 1963 and subsequently sold 27 January 1964 to];
Norton Simon, Los Angeles, sold 7 January 1974 to;
[Wildenstein & Co., Inc., New York, sold 20 December 1978 to];
The Norton Simon Foundation.
Claude Monet (1840-1926), Giverny, still in 1922;
Michel Monet, Giverny, in 1935;
Georges Wildenstein, Paris, by 1937.
[Wildenstein & Co., Inc., New York; by 1944, offered 26 January 1963 and subsequently sold 27 January 1964 to];
Norton Simon, Los Angeles, sold 7 January 1974 to;
[Wildenstein & Co., Inc., New York, sold 20 December 1978 to];
The Norton Simon Foundation.
French Pastel & Drawings from Clouet to Degas
- Wildenstein & Co. (New York, N.Y.), 1944-02-09 to 1944-03-02
Loan Exhibition of Drawings and Pastels by Edgar Degas 1834-1917
- Washington D.C., Philips Memorial Gallery, 1947-03-30 to 1947-04-30
[on loan]
- Art Institute of Chicago, 1978-12-07 to 1979-07-16
Redesigned Degas Galleries
- Norton Simon Museum, 1995-05-04 to 1997-06-01
Works by Edgar Degas
- Cleveland Museum of Art, 1947-02-05 to 1947-03-09
Taking Shape: Degas as Sculptor
- Norton Simon Museum, 2017-11-09 to 2018-04-09
Edgar Hilaire Germain Degas
- Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1958-03-03 to 1958-04-06
A Loan Exhibition of Degas for the Benefit of the New York Infirmary
- Wildenstein & Co. (New York, N.Y.), 1949-04-07 to 1949-05-14
Degas
- Paris, Musee de l'Orangerie, de Tuileries, 1937-03 to 1937-04
- Vauxcelles, Louis, L'Art et les Artistes, p. 89
- Wilenski, R., Modern French Painters, pl. 13 pp. 5, 9, 75, 139
- Art News, p. 17
- Cabanne, Pierre, Edgar Degas, pl. 116 pp. 56, 134
- Schwabe, Randolph, Degas: The Draftsman, pl. 36
- Janis, Eugenia Parry, The Burlington Magazine, fig. 43 p. 80
- Ohoka, M., Degas, p. 85
- Boggs, Jean Sutherland, et al., Degas, fig. 145 p. 307
- Milner, Frank, Degas, pp. 102-103
- Lemoisne, Paul-André, Degas et son oeuvre, no. 890
- Russoli, Franco; and Fiorella Minervino, L'opera completa di Degas, p. 128
- Geffroy, Gustave, Claude Monet: sa vie, son temps, son oeuvre, 1922, p. 179
- Boggs, Jean Sutherland, Drawings by Degas, 1966, p. 198
- Janis, Eugenia Parry, Degas Monotypes, 1968, no. 152
- Adhemar, Jean; and Françoise Cachin, Edgar Degas: gravures et monotypes, 1972, pp. LXII, LXVII
- Thomson, Richard, The Private Degas, 1987, fig. 143 p. 109
- Thomson, Richard, Degas: The Nudes, 1988, p. 80
- Masterpieces from the Norton Simon Museum, 1989, p. 150
- Kendall, Richard, Degas: Beyond Impressionism, 1996, fig. 69 p. 70
- Willard, C., American Artist, 1998, p. 12
- Dye, Sean, The Mixed-Media Sourcebook, 2004, p. 112
- Anfam, David and Sheena Wagstaff, Edward Hopper, 2004, fig. 11 p. 20
- Campbell, Sara et al., Degas in the Norton Simon Museum, 2009, Fig. 9 pp. 9, 44, 119
- Campbell, Sara, Collector Without Walls: Norton Simon and His Hunt for the Best, 2010, cat. 172 p. 266
- various authors, Degas un peintre impressionniste, 2015, Fig. 35 p. 150
- Museum of Modern Art, Edgar Degas: A Strange New Beauty, 2016, Figure 5 p. #41
- Marianne Mathieu and Dominique Lobstein, Monet The Collector, 2017, Fig. 2 pp. 30-31, p. 238, pp. 269-270 ; p. 31 (ill.), p. 269 (ill.)
- Michel Schulman, Degas Catalogue Raisonné Online, 2021, MS-1075
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