Nude Woman Standing, Drying Herself (Femme nue debout, a sa toilette) by Edgar Degas, created around 1890, exemplifies the artist’s late career fascination with the private rituals of the female form. This intimate piece is executed as a lithograph on laid paper, categorized firmly within the tradition of French prints produced during the final decades of the nineteenth century. Degas, known primarily as a painter and sculptor, frequently turned to printmaking to explore the nuances of line and texture, allowing for rapid variations on a theme while maintaining the immediacy of a sketch.
The subject depicted is a woman engaged in the act of toilette, the intimate process of bathing and drying. Degas avoids the classicized, idealized nude common to academic art, focusing instead on the candid, often awkward, posture of the figure observed from an oblique or voyeuristic angle. This emphasis on the unposed, observed action aligns with the artist’s commitment to capturing modern life away from public scrutiny.
The lithographic technique, utilizing greasy crayons applied to the stone surface, lends itself well to the soft modeling of the body and the atmospheric quality of the interior space. By employing this process on laid paper, Degas achieves a subtle interplay of light and shadow, emphasizing contour and mass rather than detailed realism. The work belongs to the critical period between 1876 to 1900, when Degas moved decisively away from mythological subjects to concentrate on interior domesticity. This exploration of the figure was radical for its time and demonstrates the innovative nature of French realism during the late 19th century. The emphasis on composition in this print also reveals Degas’s ongoing commitment to drawing and linear definition.
Nude Woman Standing, Drying Herself (Femme nue debout, a sa toilette) is held in the permanent collection of the National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. As a major print dating to 1890, the work falls into the public domain, ensuring its continued accessibility for scholarship and appreciation.
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