Nude Woman Standing, Drying Herself

Nude Woman Standing, Drying Herself by Edgar Degas, created between 1891 and 1892, is a masterful example of late 19th-century printmaking innovation. This intimate image is classified as a lithograph, meticulously developed through a transfer process from an initial monotype. Degas employed a complex mix of crayon, tusche (a lithographic ink), and scraping, characterizing its dense tonal range and velvety textures. The complexity of its creation is evidenced by its classification as the fifth state of six, demonstrating the artist’s intense commitment to refining the image through iterative modifications of the stone.

Degas frequently focused on intimate, unposed scenes of female nudes performing mundane, private acts, moving away from the highly idealized mythological depictions common in academic art. Here, the woman is captured mid-movement, absorbed entirely in the act of drying herself, lending the work a striking immediacy and naturalism. The composition emphasizes volume and form primarily through the skillful application of light and shadow, highlighting the unique expressive possibilities offered by the lithographic medium.

This historically important print resides in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. As one of the final prints created by the artist, the piece reflects Degas’s late-career dedication to the graphic arts, where he experimented rigorously with line and texture. Due to its prominence within major institutions, this influential work, Nude Woman Standing, Drying Herself, often serves as a key reference for scholars studying late Impressionist prints and is frequently reproduced in public domain collections.