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A nude woman standing at a bath tub and holding a towel

At center, a nude woman facing away from the viewer stands in front of a white bath tub in a light filled room. She looks down and to the left, her face in three quarter profile in an orange reflected light. She holds the towel behind her, holding one corner of the towel in her left hand down at her side, and one corner in her raised right hand. At upper right, brightly colored curtains hang open against a bright yellow wall.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
1927.23
People
Hilaire-Germain-Edgar Degas, French (Paris, France 1834 - 1917 Paris, France)
Title
After the Bath, Woman with a Towel
Other Titles
Alternate Title: Après le bain
Classification
Drawings
Work Type
drawing
Date
c. 1893-1897
Culture
French
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/304370

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Pastel on blue-gray wove paper
Dimensions
70.8 x 57.3 cm (27 7/8 x 22 9/16 in.)
frame: 82.6 x 69.5 x 4 cm (32 1/2 x 27 3/8 x 1 9/16 in.)
Inscriptions and Marks
  • Signed: pastel, lower right: Degas

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
Adolphe Tavernier, Paris, sold [through Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, March 6, 1900, lot 114]. Sarah Choate Sears, Boston, MA, gift; to Fogg Art Museum, 1927.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Gift of Mrs. J. Montgomery Sears
Accession Year
1927
Object Number
1927.23
Division
European and American Art
Contact
am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu
Permissions

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Publication History

  • Julius Meier-Graefe, Modern art: being a contribution to a new system of aesthetics, William Heinemann, Ltd. (London, England, 1908), vol. 1, plate 84
  • Julius Meier-Graefe, Degas, Ernest Benn Ltd. (London, England, 1923), plate LXXXIII
  • Exhibition of French Painting of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, exh. cat., Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, MA, 1929), no. 33
  • René Huyghe, "Degas ou la fiction réaliste", L'Amour de L'Art (Paris, France, July 1931), XII, p. 279, fig. 30
  • Degas, checklist, Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, MA, 1931), no. 12
  • Independent Painters of Nineteenth Century Paris, exh. cat., Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (Boston, MA, 1935), no. 20, repr. p. 64
  • Degas, 1834-1917, exh. cat., Pennsylvania Museum of Art (Philadelphia, PA, 1936), no. 46, repr.
  • Jacqueline Bouchot-Saupique and Marie Delaroche-Vernet, Degas, exh. cat., Musée de l'Orangerie (Paris, France, 1937), no. 161
  • Agnes Mongan and Paul J. Sachs, Drawings in the Fogg Museum of Art, Harvard University Press (Cambridge, 1940), vol. 1, cat. no. 675, fig. 351
  • Denis Rouart, Degas à la recherche de sa technique, Henri Floury (Paris, France, 1945), repr. p. 33
  • Paul André Lemoisne, Degas et son Oeuvre, Paul Brame and Cesar M. de Hauke (Paris, France, 1946-1949), vol. III, p. 708, no. 1221, repr.
  • Ingres and Degas: Two Classical Draughtsmen, exh. cat., Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, MA, 1961), no. 21
  • Reed Kay, The painter's companion: a basic guide to studio methods and materials, Webb Books, Inc. (Cambridge, MA, 1961), fig. 19, p. 144
  • Franco Russoli and Fiorella Minervino, L'opera completa di Degas, Rizzoli Editore (Milan, Italy, 1970), repr. plate LXI (color) and fig. 1032
  • Reed Kay, The Painter's Guide to Studio Methods and Materials, Doubleday & Co. (Garden City, NY, 1972), repr. plate 32 (b/w)
  • Barbara S. Shapiro, Edgar Degas: the Reluctant Impressionist, exh. cat., Boston Museum of Fine Arts (Boston, MA, 1974), no. 88
  • Alfred Werner, Degas Pastels, Watson-Guptill Publications (New York, NY, 1977), no. 31
  • Jean Sutherland Boggs, "Variations on the Nude", Apollo (June 1978), vol. CVII, no. 196, pp. 487-489, repr. p. 489, pl. XX
  • Joseph Meder, The Mastery of Drawing, Abaris Books (New York, 1978), plate 259
  • Ian Dunlop, Degas, Harper & Row (New York, NY, 1979), fig. 179
  • Nathan Goldstein, Painting, visual and technical fundamentals, Prentice-Hall (Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1979), repr. p. 26
  • Eldon N. Van Liere, "Solutions and Dissolutions: The Bather in Nineteenth-Century French Painting", Arts Magazine (May 1980), pp. 110-111, fig. 20
  • Ron Lister, Drawing with Pastels, Prentice-Hall (Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1982), fig. 4.1
  • Pia Desantis, "Study of the Five Degas Pastels in the Fogg Art Museum" (thesis (certificate in conservation), Straus Center for Conservation and Technical Studies, July 1985), Unpublished, pp. 1-94 passim
  • Robert Gordon and Andrew Forge, Degas, Thames & Hudson (London, England, 1988), repr. color p. 270
  • Shelley Fletcher and Pia Desantis, "Degas: the search for his technique continues", The Burlington Magazine (April 1989), vol. 131, p. 263, fig. 14
  • Degas, Fenice 2000 (Milan, Italy, 1994), pl. 51 (color)
  • Richard Kendall, Degas: Beyond Impressionism, exh. cat., Yale University Press (New Haven, CT, 1996), fig. 42, p. 46
  • James Cuno, Alvin L. Clark, Jr., Ivan Gaskell, and William W. Robinson, Harvard's Art Museums: 100 Years of Collecting, ed. James Cuno, Harvard University Art Museums and Harry N. Abrams, Inc. (Cambridge, MA, 1996), p. 234, ill. p. 235
  • Masterpieces of world art : Fogg Art Museum, Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Busch-Reisinger Museum, 1997
  • Judith A. Barter, Mary Cassatt: Modern Woman, exh. cat., The Art Institute of Chicago/Harry N. Abrams (Chicago, IL and New York, NY, 1998), p. 184, fig. 8
  • Ann Dumas and David A. Brenneman, Degas and America: The Early Collectors, exh. cat., High Museum of Art/MInneapolis Institute of Arts/Rizzoli (New York, NY, 2001), fig. 2 (color) on p. 17, also p. 25
  • Jon Garelick, "Abstract Thoughts: The Transitional and Transcendent Art of Edgar Degas at the Sackler Museum", The Boston Phoenix (August 5 2005), p. 18, p. 18
  • Cate McQuaid, "Degas, Intimately", The Boston Globe (August 12, 2005), Weekend section, repr.
  • Gene Wolfe, "Degas's American Dawn", Museums Boston (spring 2005-summer 2005), vol. 9, no. 1, p. 59, repr. p. 59
  • Christopher Reed, "Mad for Degas", Harvard Magazine (July 2005 - August 2005), vol. 107, no. 6, pp. 40-45, pp. 40-41, ill.
  • Bob Jackman, "Shades of Degas", The Patriot Ledger (August 6 2005-August 7 2005), pp. 39-40, repr. p. 40
  • Marjorie B. Cohn and Jean Sutherland Boggs, Degas at Harvard, exh. cat., Harvard University Art Museums/Yale University Press (Cambridge and New Haven, 2005), cat. no. 18, fig. 4 (color), p. 19
  • Impressionist and Modern Art, auct. cat., Christie's, London (London, June 18, 2007), repr. p. 19
  • George T.M. Shackelford and Xavier Rey, Degas and the Nude, exh. cat., Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (Boston, 2011), pp. 159-160, repr. p. 161 as fig. 167, p. 227
  • Ewa Lajer-Burcharth and Elizabeth M. Rudy, ed., Drawing: The Invention of a Modern Medium, exh. cat., Harvard Art Museums (Cambridge, 2017), pp. 74, 281, repr. p. 73 as fig. 5

Exhibition History

  • French Painting of the 19th and 20th Centuries, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 03/06/1929 - 04/06/1929
  • Degas, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 05/09/1931 - 05/30/1931
  • Independent Painters of 19th Century Paris, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Boston, 03/15/1935 - 04/28/1935
  • Degas, 1834-1917, Pennsylvania Museum of Art, Philadelphia, 11/01/1936 - 11/30/1936
  • Degas, Musée de l'Orangerie, Paris, 03/01/1937 - 05/20/1937
  • Great Modern French Drawings, Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences Museum, Brooklyn, 01/01/1939 - 03/12/1939
  • Ingres and Degas: Two Classical Draughtsmen, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 04/24/1961 - 05/20/1961
  • Edgar Degas: the Reluctant Impressionist, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Boston, 06/19/1974 - 09/15/1974
  • Degas at Harvard, Harvard University Art Museums, Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Cambridge, 08/01/2005 - 11/27/2005
  • Degas and the Nude, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Boston, 10/09/2011 - 02/05/2012
  • Drawing: The Invention of a Modern Medium, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 01/21/2017 - 05/07/2017

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of European and American Art at am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu