Après le bain (Femme s'essuyant)

about 1895

Medium

Pastel, on paper laid down on board

Dimensions

72 × 58 cm

Status

In Museum Collection

Collect24 Art ID

C24-210842

In a densely patterned, dizzily colorful interior, Degas’s nude turns her back to us and bends to dry her side. Her pose, at once graceful and tortuous, lends this scene a frisson, encouraging us to believe we have surprised this woman in a private moment. Unseen windows bathe her back in light, conjured with electric streaks and scribbles of color, while her face, lost in shadow, seems to gaze into the opalescent depths of the tub beside her. Like the other items of furniture depicted, this tub at once corroborates and undermines the fiction of a moment surprised, intersecting abruptly with a folding screen and disappearing from view. Along with the expanse of tufted carpet, the overstuffed canapé, and the cascade of drapery at left, these objects form a dreamy indoor landscape—less the ordinary terrain of a domestic interior than an intimate corner of Degas’s studio. Dated to 1882-1885 by Paul-André Lemoisne in volumne II of his 1946-1948 catalogue raisonné of Degas’s work, this pastel was likely made at a somewhat later moment, 1886 or after, when, having achieved financial independence, Degas had all but ceased to exhibit, retreating into the private world of his studio t…