Nude Woman Standing, Drying Herself

Nude Woman Standing, Drying Herself by Edgar Degas (French, 1834-1917) is a powerful example of the Impressionist master's intensive, late-career exploration of printmaking. Created between 1891 and 1892, this work is a transfer lithograph executed on ivory wove paper. This specific medium allowed Degas to achieve a distinct richness of tone and texture, producing images that are both starkly graphic and intensely atmospheric, differentiating them from the surface qualities of his celebrated pastels and oils.

Unlike many of his contemporaries focused on grand public subjects, Degas frequently depicted women in intimate, unposed moments, often centering on the acts of bathing, dressing, and drying. The central figure here, caught mid-movement, is rendered with the characteristic dynamism and blurred lines that mark the artist's late style in France. The focus is less on classical idealism and more on the candid, private labor of the bath, capturing the figure with unsparing immediacy.

The intense contrasts and subtle tonal shifts achievable through the transfer lithograph process demonstrate Degas’s dedication to perfecting his prints during this pivotal era. Today, high-quality images of this work are often available through public domain initiatives, allowing wider study of the artist's pioneering graphic approach to the female form. This compelling impression of Nude Woman Standing, Drying Herself resides in the esteemed collection of the Art Institute of Chicago, where it serves as a key document of late 19th-century French graphic arts.