Woman Seen from Behind, Drying Hair 1910

Edgar Degas made "Woman Seen from Behind, Drying Hair" with pastel, a medium I adore for its immediacy. The way he's layered those colors – oranges, blues, browns – it’s like watching a feeling unfold. Check out the mark-making, the scumbles around the figure. It’s not about perfection but the process of finding the form. The texture is soft, almost powdery, yet there's a physicality to the strokes that gives the piece a real presence. The blue strokes of the dress move diagonally against the implied lines of the figure. It’s the kind of mark that feels both accidental and totally intentional, suggesting movement, and even a little melancholy. Thinking about contemporaries, you can almost see the early bones of someone like Bonnard here. Ultimately, though, Degas reminds us that art is about seeing, feeling, and leaving room for the unexpected.