Woman at Her Bath 1898

Edgar Degas made this pastel drawing, Woman at Her Bath, exploring a genre he returned to throughout his career. He built the composition with layers of dry pigment, a process that allowed him to achieve a vibrant surface and a sense of immediacy. The pastel medium allowed for a fusion of drawing and painting. The marks are visible, not blended, suggesting a rapid execution that belies the artist's careful construction. Consider the social context: bathing was a highly gendered activity, and women’s toilette a common subject for male artists. This intimate scene is mediated by the presence of a maidservant. The unseen labour of working-class women was essential to the leisure and self-care of the bourgeoisie. Degas’s technique embraces an aesthetic of the unfinished, of the sketch. But the drawing’s apparent spontaneity should not distract us from the social and political realities it reflects.