Edgar DegasFrench, 1834–1917The Tub
Can I see it?
Unknown
Where is “The Tub” now? Collection: Musée d'Orsay, Paris. Unknown.
Paris, France
The owner is known; whether it is on view today is not.
- In this state since
- Source
- The museum
About the painting
The Tub (Woman Bathing in a Shallow Tub) is an 1886 pastel drawing on heavy wove paper by the French artist Edgar Degas. The work depicts a nude woman crouched in a shallow tub, illuminated by early morning light as she bathes. It is one of seven pastels Degas created in the mid-1880s showing women bathing or drying themselves in private interiors. He exhibited The Tub alongside the related nudes at the Eighth Impressionist Exhibition in 1886, where the group was regarded as one of the highlights of the show.
Read on
The composition is marked by the angled edge of a cupboard or dressing table, whose objects interrupt the rounded form of the bather and heighten the impression of an incidental glimpse. Critics responded in varied ways, though reception leaned largely positive: many praised the pastel's realism, beauty, and technical refinement, and several drew classical comparisons, while a few critics expressed discomfort with Degas's unconventional treatment of the nude. In 1908, the pastel was donated to the Louvre, where it was first displayed in 1914. With the founding of the Musée d'Orsay, the work was transferred to that museum, where it is housed today.
Details
- Accession number
- RF 4046
In the catalog
Sources
- Wikidata
- Image: Musée d'Orsay — Edgar Degas · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
In the life of Edgar Degas
The whole life1886
The eighth exhibition: pastel nudes, and the end of the group
At the last Impressionist exhibition Degas showed a suite of pastel nudes, which drew more critical writing than anything else in his lifetime, mostly laudatory. The group broke up, partly through rancour over the inclusion of non-Impressionists such as Forain and Raffaëlli.
after 1886
Into the shadows: he stops exhibiting
After 1886 Degas stopped exhibiting and sold his pictures at high prices through a narrow circle of agents. By the end of the decade he had in effect fulfilled his wish to be “famous and unknown”, withdrawing among close friends.
late 1880s
A passion for photography
Degas photographed his friends, often by lamplight, as in the double portrait of Renoir and Mallarmé. Photographs of dancers and nudes served as references for his drawings and paintings.
