The Tub 1886

Curator: Here we have Edgar Degas' "The Tub", from 1886, a pastel drawing currently residing at the Musée d'Orsay in Paris. Editor: Mmm, pastels. Instantly makes me think of breath on glass. It’s intimate, but in a slightly…observational way? Like peeking through a keyhole. Curator: Exactly! This piece is exemplary of Degas' engagement with intimism, turning away from grand narratives toward capturing candid, private moments of modern life. The unusual perspective, looking down into the tub, really flattens the space. Editor: It’s all lines, isn't it? The table edge slicing through the scene, the curve of the tub mirroring her body… there’s a deliberate geometry happening, almost fighting against the softness of the pastel. And the composition's off-kilter in a way that feels modern. Like, reality isn’t always perfectly centered. Curator: Absolutely. Consider that Degas exhibited this pastel alongside a larger series of bathing women at the eighth Impressionist exhibition. These works were rather provocative in their own time for their direct and unsentimental depiction of the female body. He challenged academic traditions of the nude. Editor: It’s a far cry from those reclining Venuses we are used to seeing. There’s such a lack of idealization – that slouch, the awkward angle… she could be anyone. She is fully unglorified, but beautifully so. It reminds us of mortality, perhaps. Curator: Some critics see the work as symptomatic of the period’s fascination with documenting modernity but from a highly gendered and classed perspective. This brings up significant issues about how women's bodies have been visualized. But regardless, it's quite clear he was deeply engaged in representing the female form through the prism of contemporary life. Editor: He gets a little too close to comfort for me. Though it also reminds me to celebrate the fleeting details in my life. Maybe it’s just me trying to excuse a voyeuristic gaze. Either way, "The Tub" has me contemplating both art history and my own routine tonight. Curator: It definitely encapsulates the complex relationship between art and observation, then. Degas forces us to question what it means to be a viewer and what the ethical responsibilities of representation are. A thought-provoking slice of fin-de-siècle Paris!