Woman Drying Her Arm

Woman Drying Her Arm is a powerful drawing created by Edgar Degas between 1885 and 1895, representing the artist's intense late-career focus on the private life of the female nude. Executed in pastel and charcoal on light pink wove paper, the composition demonstrates Degas’s mastery of mixed media, utilizing the dry pigments to capture the texture of flesh and towels. The contrast between the broad, sweeping marks of pastel and the sharp, expressive lines of the charcoal defines the figure’s robust form.

During this period, Degas increasingly sought subjects observed in intimate, domestic settings, particularly women performing their toilette. Here, the figure is caught mid-action, vigorously drying or scrubbing her arm. This unselfconscious, momentary posture emphasizes naturalism over the classical idealized form traditionally associated with nudes. The delicate quality of the paper, now slightly discolored at the edges, speaks to the experimental nature of the materials Degas employed while obsessively documenting movement.

This drawing is highly valued for its spontaneity and dynamic composition, cementing Degas’s position as a pioneer of modern drawing. As a crucial example of his draftsmanship, the piece is frequently reproduced for study; high-quality prints are often accessible through institutions that leverage public domain protocols for educational distribution. The work is permanently housed in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where it serves as a foundational example of Impressionist drawing techniques and the unflinching artistic honesty that characterized the final decades of Degas’s career.