After Bathing, Woman Drying Herself 1907

Edgar Degas made this pastel drawing of a woman drying herself after bathing, probably towards the end of the nineteenth century. You know, when I look at this, I immediately think of the way I work with pastels or charcoal, building up a tone with small, hatched marks. I love the way the surface is alive in this piece. It’s all about this kind of soft, powdery texture. Look at the marks around the figure, you can almost feel the artist pressing hard, smudging, really wrestling with the material, and in the lower right, near the bottom edge, the hatch marks are so clear and present. That energetic hatching really makes me think of someone like Cy Twombly, but in a totally different mood. Both are interested in that kind of direct, almost primal mark-making. It is amazing how Degas uses that texture to capture a moment of intimate vulnerability. Ultimately art is an ongoing conversation, right?