Edgar Degas

Estate of the artist (and sold: Galeries Georges Petit, Paris, Atelier Edgar Degas, 3ème vente, April 7-9, 1919, lot 294)
Hammer Galleries, New York
Private Collection, Japan
Acquired from the above by the present owner

Paris, Galerie A.J. Seligmann, Pastel Français, 1933, n.n.

Executed on dark cream card. The sheet is T-hinged to the mat at four places along the top edge and the lower left and lower right corners secured in corner placeholders. There are pinholes around the periphery of the sheet. There is a 1/2 in wide mat stain around the entire edge of the sheet. There is a minor nick to the middle of the left edge of the sheet associated with a pinhole, this is hidden by the mat. Further very minor loss to extreme lower left edge of paper, also hidden by the mat. There is minor general surface dirt to the sheet and medium transfer in the background, most of it most likely dating from the artist's lifetime. The charcoal and pastel are fresh and strong. The drawing is in very good condition.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Après le bain, femme s’essuyant is a stunning interpretation of a theme that would come to dominate Degas’ career. In his works on the subject of women at their toilette, often in a process of washing or, as in the present work, drying their hair, Degas explores the unusual contortions and expressions of the female nude. The bather began to appear with increasing frequency in his work from the early 1880s and has become known as one of his most iconic subjects. Executed in 1903, Après le bain, femme s’essuyant depicts a bather twisting her body while in the process of drying her hair. Degas often depicted this same pose from different vantage points in order to study and further understand the intricacy and beauty of human anatomy (see fig. 1). By the time the present work was executed his approach to the subject of the bather had become bolder and more confident than that demonstrated in his compositions from the 1880s.

Degas chose to capture his models in private moments, when they would appear fully immersed in their activity, completely unaware of being observed. The sense of privacy is amplified by the artist’s preferred viewpoint, depicting his subject from the back. In the series of bathers, he was interested in exploring the female figure, rather than in representing his models as individuals. He rarely personified them, and concentrated instead on depicting the human form in a variety of rituals and movements. Commenting on Degas’ methods, his contemporary Pierre-Georges Jeanniot noted: "Degas was very concerned with the accuracy of movements and postures. He studied them endlessly. I have seen him work with a model, trying to make her assume the gestures of a woman drying herself, tilted over the high back of a chair covered with a bath towel. This is a complicated movement. You see the two shoulder blades from behind; but the right shoulder, squeezed by the weight of the body, assumes an unexpected outline that suggests a kind of acrobatic gesture, a violent effort" (Pierre-Georges Jeanniot, quoted in Robert Gordon & Andrew Forge, Degas, New York, 1988, p. 223).