The Tub

This work belongs to a group of nude women engaged in bathing, washing, drying off, combing their hair, or having it combed, which Degas created in preparation for the eighth and last exhibition of the Impressionists in 1886. Although it is not conclusive that The Tub was exhibited at that show, it is viewed today as one of the artist’s finest pastels. As in this drawing, at the height of his career, Degas had largely turned away from oil paint to the use of pastel. His vision was failing and working in oil paint was too burdensome; pastel also enabled him to work with greater speed and less expense, thereby expanding sales. This work is distinguished by the artist’s mastery at applying successive layers of pigment, his unconventional use of color whereby blues are as intense in the background as they are in the foreground, and his unusual bird’s eye view of a woman caught in an intimate moment as if, as Degas said, “…one were watching through a keyhole.”