The Bath c. 1882

This is ‘The Bath’ by Edgar Degas, an etching printed on paper and held at the Art Institute of Chicago. The print plunges us into an intimate, enclosed space dominated by stark contrasts. Degas uses deep blacks and soft grays to model the female figure, whose head is buried in her arm. The texture feels almost tactile, due to the density of the marks. Note how the composition is sharply divided between the dark, enclosed space and a bright vertical rectangle on the right. The formal structure reflects Degas’s broader interest in the gaze and the construction of the modern female subject. Here, the woman's obscured face and averted gaze challenge traditional representations of women as objects of display, inviting questions about privacy and voyeurism. The striking contrast between light and shadow underscores this tension. The print's power resides in the way it uses form to challenge fixed notions of femininity and representation, inviting ongoing interpretation.