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A seated nude woman facing away and holding a towel

Softly textured gray lines depict a seated nude woman facing away from the viewer and leaning forward and turned to the right. With her right hand she holds a towel up to the side of her head, obscuring her face. Her left hand holds the edge of the cushion on which she sits. Her hair is accented with brown chalk and touches of blue and olive indicate the background at her left. Dark shading at lower right sets off her pale front right leg bent in front of her.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
1965.259
People
Hilaire-Germain-Edgar Degas, French (Paris, France 1834 - 1917 Paris, France)
Title
After the Bath
Classification
Drawings
Work Type
drawing
Date
c. 1892-1894
Culture
French
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/296332

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Charcoal and pastel on off-white wove paper
Dimensions
43.5 x 33.2 cm (17 1/8 x 13 1/16 in.)
frame: 59.5 x 49.4 x 2.2 cm (23 7/16 x 19 7/16 x 7/8 in.)
Inscriptions and Marks
  • Signed: green pastel, l.l.: Degas
  • inscription: l.l., green pastel, signed, in artist's hand: Degas

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
[Christie, Manson, & Woods, London, May 9, 1913, lot 165], sold; to Wallis. C. J. Coté, sold; to [Durand-Ruel, New York, March 25, 1921] sold; to Paul J. Sachs, January 2, 1926, bequest; to Fogg Art Museum, 1965.


Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Bequest of Meta and Paul J. Sachs
Accession Year
1965
Object Number
1965.259
Division
European and American Art
Contact
am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu
Permissions

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Publication History

  • Cataologue of Old Pictures & Drawings and a Few Works by Modern Artists, auct. cat., Christie, Manson and Woods, Ltd. (London, May 8-9, 1913), lot 165
  • Prints, Drawings, and Bronzes by Degas, checklist, The Grolier Club (New York, 1922), cat. no. 27 or 35(?), repr. p. 3
  • Degas, Braun et Cie (Paris, France, 1934), no. 13
  • Independent Painters of Nineteenth Century Paris, exh. cat., Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (Boston, MA, 1935), no. 123
  • Degas, 1834-1917, exh. cat., Pennsylvania Museum of Art (Philadelphia, PA, 1936), no. 85, repr.
  • Ambroise Vollard, Degas, an intimate portrait, Crown Publishers Inc. (New York, NY, 1937), pl. 39
  • Agnes Mongan and Paul J. Sachs, Drawings in the Fogg Museum of Art, Harvard University Press (Cambridge, 1940), vol. 1, cat. no. 674, fig. 350
  • Masterpieces of 19th and 20th Century French Drawing from the Fogg Museum..., brochure, Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, MI, 1941), checklist no. 26
  • Hilaire-Germain Edgard Degas, 1834-1917: 30 Drawings & Pastels, Erich S. Herrmann (New York, NY, 1944), pl. 11
  • William G. Constable, “The Nude: Showing a 5-Century Ideal", ArtNews, ed. Alfred M. Frankfurter, ARTnews (1946), vol. 44, no. 19, January, pp. 8-10, repr. p. 10
  • James Watrous, The Craft of Old-Master Drawings, University of Wisconsin Press (Madison, WI, 1957), p. 116, repr. p. 117
  • Jakob Rosenberg, Great Draughtsmen from Pisanello to Picasso, Harvard University Press (Cambridge, MA, 1959), p. 116, pl. 221
  • Jaromir Pecirka, Edgar Degas: Drawings, P. Nevill (London, England, 1963), pl. 59
  • Agnes Mongan, Memorial Exhibition: Works of Art from the Collection of Paul J. Sachs [1878-1965]: given and bequeathed to the Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, exh. cat., Harvard University (Cambridge, MA, 1965), cat. no. 61, repr.
  • Jakob Rosenberg, Great Draughtsmen from Pisanello to Picasso [rev. ed.], Harper & Row (New York, NY, 1974), p. 154, pl. 285
  • Nathan Goldstein, The Art of Responsive Drawing [2nd ed.], Prentice-Hall Press (Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1977), fig. 2.12
  • Vojtech Jirat-Wasiutynski and Thea Jirat-Wasiutynski, "The Uses of Charcoal in Drawing", Arts Magazine (October 1980), vol. 55, no. 2, pp. 128-135, p. 131
  • Terisio Pignatti and Maria Agnese Chiari Moretto Wiel, Il disegno: da Altamira a Picasso, A. Mondadori (Milan, 1981), repr. p. 326
  • Theodore Reff and Philippe Brame, Degas et son Oeuvre: a Supplement, Garland Publishers, Inc. (New York, NY and London, England, 1984), no. 116, repr.
  • Nathan Goldstein, The Art of Responsive Drawing, Prentice-Hall Press (Englewood Cliffs, 1984), fig. 2.13; p. 30
  • 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
  • Nathan Goldstein, The Art of Responsive Drawing, Prentice-Hall Press (Englewood Cliffs, 1992), fig. 2.19; pp. 32, 40
  • Roger Ward, Dürer to Matisse: Master Drawings from The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, exh. cat., Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art (Kansas City, MO, 1996), p. 226 (under cat. 74)
  • 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. 44, fig. 10 (color), pp. 29, 34, 64
  • Musée d'Art moderne André Malraux, Ville du Havre, De Delacroix à Marquet: Donation Senn-Foulds, Dessins, exh. cat., Somogy Éditions d'Art (Paris, France, 2011), p. 200, repr. p. 200 as fig. 87.2
  • George T.M. Shackelford and Xavier Rey, Degas and the Nude, exh. cat., Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (Boston, 2011), pp. 170-171, repr. p. 170 as fig. 177, p. 227

Exhibition History

  • Prints, Drawings, and Bronzes by Degas, The Grolier Club, New York, 01/27/1922 - 03/18/1922
  • Drawings by Degas, City Art Museum of St. Louis, St. Louis, 01/01/1932 - 12/31/1932
  • 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
  • Great Modern French Drawings, Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences Museum, Brooklyn, 01/01/1939 - 03/12/1939
  • Great Modern Drawings, Phillips Memorial Gallery, Washington, 04/07/1940 - 05/01/1940
  • Masterpieces of 19th and 20th Century French Drawing from the Fogg Museum of Art at Harvard University and the Museum of Modern Art of New York City, Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, 05/01/1941 - 06/01/1941
  • Drawings by Degas, Farnsworth Art Museum (now Davis Museum and Cultural Center), Wellesley, 02/16/1946 - 03/10/1946
  • Drawings from the Fogg Museum of Art, Harvard University (Collected by Paul J. Sachs), Century Club, New York, 05/12/1947 - 09/25/1947
  • French Drawings of Five Centuries from the Collection of the Fogg Museum of Art, Harvard University, Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, 05/15/1951 - 09/30/1951
  • French Drawings from the Fogg Art Museum, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, 03/28/1952 - 04/28/1952
  • Paintings, Drawings, Prints and Sculpture by Edgar Degas, The Marion Koogler McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, 10/16/1955 - 11/13/1955
  • Memorial Exhibition: Works of Art from the Collection of Paul J. Sachs [1878-1965] Given and Bequeathed to the Fogg Art Museum Harvard University Cambridge, Massachusetts, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 11/15/1965 - 01/15/1966; The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 12/19/1966 - 02/26/1967
  • 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

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