Edgar DegasFrancia, 1834–1917Leaving the Bath
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Museo de Arte de Cleveland
Cleveland, Estados Unidos
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In Leaving the Bath, a woman is seen from behind as she awkwardly grips a tub while cautiously stepping out of it. Nearby, a maid is mostly obscured by a cloth meant to dry and warm her. Their sketchlike surroundings communicate intimacy and privacy and, in what would become a characteristic aspect of his bather imagery, Edgar Degas places the viewer in a voyeuristic perspective, with the two women unaware of our presence. The artist began to explore etching in the 1850s, registering in the print department of Paris’s Bibliothèque Nationale so that he could closely study the works of past masters such as Rembrandt van Rijn. Degas saw prints as having an important part to play in the Impressionists’ group exhibitions and displayed them alongside paintings there.
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Mientras tanto, en la vida de Edgar Degas
La vida entera1870s
From “de Gas” back to plain “Degas”
The archives disproved the legend of an ancient noble line: the artist's paternal ancestors were bakers, and the name “de Gas” was invented by his father, who commissioned a false genealogy. In the 1870s Edgar returned to the plain spelling, Degas.
second half of the 1870s
Pastel becomes his main medium
Degas increasingly chose pastel, often combining it with monotype, lithography, etching or gouache. To keep the colour from darkening under ordinary fixatives he devised his own method of fixing and applied pastel in layers.
1877
Friendship with Mary Cassatt
Degas invited Mary Cassatt to show in the third Impressionist exhibition, having admired her portrait “Ida” at the Salon of 1874. He introduced her to pastel and engraving, while she helped him sell paintings and promoted his reputation in the United States.
autumn 1879 – April 1880
The prints journal: Degas abruptly withdraws
In the autumn and winter of 1879–1880 Degas and Cassatt worked closely together on a prints journal; he owned a small printing press. In April 1880 Degas abruptly withdrew, and without his support the project folded.
by 1880
The end of his financial crisis
By 1880 Degas had fully overcome his financial crisis and become a respected figure in the Paris art world; the Impressionist exhibitions, which proved commercially useful to him, helped.
1881
“The Little Dancer of Fourteen Years” on show
The nearly life-size wax figure with real hair and a cloth tutu, modelled on Marie van Goethem, provoked a strong reaction: critics found its realism extraordinary, but many denounced the dancer as ugly. It was the only sculpture Degas showed in his lifetime.
