“The Tub”
“The Tub” is a pastel on paper drawing by the French artist, Edgar Degas, circa 1885 to 1886. Though he is often labeled as an impressionist, Degas preferred to be called a realist.
This is one in a series of seven nudes that Degas created in the 1880s in preparation for the eighth and final Impressionist art exhibition in 1886. In this series, Degas aimed to capture the more intimate and realistic moments of women bathing, drying, and grooming themselves.
“The Tub” is regarded as one of Degas’s finest pastel drawings. In it, a female is standing in a tub with her hair tied up, bending at the waist to dip her sponge in the water. His unusual perspective, graceful lines, cooler palette, and contrasting lines show his mastery of the medium.
Along with ballet dancers and racing jockeys, nudes of women bathing were one of Degas’s more popular subjects. He referred to his capture of action shots in modern day life as “premeditated instantaneousness”.
“The Tub” is currently on display at the Hill-Stead Museum in Farmington, Connecticut, in the United States.
For more on Edgar Degas, please visit his short biography here.
You can find more artists to learn about here.
