Description
After the Bath (1895) shows a nude woman seen from behind, kneeling and bent forward, reaching down with both arms towards a shallow basin at the left edge; her hair is red, her head is bowed, and orange and red burn across the whole surface. As a canvas painting this is an upright, tightly cropped scene in which the colour takes over almost everything. The original is a pastel on paper and is held in the Courtauld Gallery in London under the inventory number D.1932.SC.27. We make it as a hand-painted oil on linen, in sizes from 50 x 50 to 150 x 150 cm or to your own measurements, and you receive a photograph of the finished work for approval before dispatch.
| Title: | After the Bath (1895) |
| Other titles: | After the bath – woman drying herself |
| Painter: | Edgar Degas (1834–1917) |
| Subject: | a nude figure from behind, bent over a shallow basin, orange and red across the whole surface |
| Original size: | 67,7 cm x 57,8 cm |
| Original technique: | Pastel on paper |
| Painting style: | Impressionism |
| Located at: | Courtauld Gallery, London (inv. no. D.1932.SC.27) |
| Our reproduction: | hand-painted oil on linen canvas, 8 sizes from 50 x 50 cm to 150 x 150 cm, custom sizes on request |
After the Bath (1895) – Edgar Degas
Who is shown?
A single figure, unnamed. The woman kneels, turned away from us, and we see her from behind and slightly from above. Her head is bowed to the left, her hair is red and pinned up, and we do not see her face. Both arms reach down and to the left, towards a shallow basin at the lower left edge. This is not a pose: the scene would be the same if nobody were looking, and the viewer is an observer, not the person being addressed. In his late years Degas made a large series of scenes in which women wash, dry themselves or rest after bathing, and he almost never named his models.
What is on the canvas?
The format is upright and the crop is tight – the body fills nearly the whole surface. The back and the right shoulder are the largest pale mass in the scene, and the skin is laid down in long vertical strokes of red, orange and pink. Behind the figure falls a curtain of vertical strokes in yellow, orange and red, as though the colour were running downwards; at the upper right stands a dark olive-green mass. Under the hip and behind it runs a blue-grey cloth, the only cool colour in the scene. At the lower left stands a dark shallow basin with a pale rim, set on a white cloth, and below it spreads an orange-red ground. There are no sharp outlines anywhere; the forms are held together by colour.
Why does this particular scene matter?
Because it shows Degas at the point where colour took the lead over drawing. The scene stays entirely legible – you see at once what is happening – but under a longer look it falls apart into sheer vertical layers of pastel that do not merge. The orange describes neither a wall nor a carpet; it is a pressure that pushes the body forward towards us. The light comes out of that layering, not out of a smooth transition. That is exactly why a scene like this works harder on a wall today than you would expect from so quiet a motif.
What does the scene mean?
Nothing narrative. There is no event, no second person, no look towards us. The body is occupied with an everyday action and for exactly that reason reads as true rather than displayed. Impressionism for Degas always meant a body in a position nobody would choose for a portrait; here that position is pure work, which is why an impressionist painting of his reads as observation and not as a scene arranged for the viewer. As wall art it carries a room through the warmth of its colour rather than through a story.
The motif among Degas’s works
The bath and the bathers are among Degas’s great late subjects. Closest to this sheet in our range are After the Bath, bending figure, where the same moment is caught in a landscape format, and Bather Stretched out on Floor, where the figure lies stretched out on towels. The subject out of doors and with several people is carried by Peasant Girls Bathing in the Sea at Dusk. Very close to this scene is also After the Bath, Woman drying herself at the National Gallery in London, while The Star at the Art Institute of Chicago shows the same pastel used for the stage rather than for the nude.
How is our hand-painted version made?
With a brush and oil colours, not a printer, and there is a difference here that has to be said plainly: the original is not painted in oil but in pastel on paper. Pastel is dry and granular, oil is denser and more continuous, so the painter lays the colour in short separated strokes and leaves the ground visible between them to come close to the effect of dry chalk. Every one of our canvases is made the same way, layer after layer. The hardest part is keeping the vertical rhythm of the strokes on the back without the red and the orange merging into a single flat surface. Every reproduction is made afresh and no two copies are ever quite the same, because the hand does not repeat the same stroke twice; every hand-painted copy is therefore its own. The photograph of your canvas reaches you before dispatch.
Which size for which wall?
If you do not know which: 90 x 90 cm. All eight sizes are square or nearly square, while the original is a little taller than it is wide, so in our sizes the scene sits in a square field; if you want the original’s proportion, we paint it to measure. The 50 x 50 and 60 x 60 cm sizes are for a smaller room, a hallway or a narrow wall; 70 x 70 and 75 x 77 cm come closest to the size of the original and are for someone who wants exactly that; 90 x 90 and 100 x 100 cm are the sizes above a chest of drawers or a bed and are the ones most people choose, because at them the body is large enough for the vertical strokes to read properly. The 120 x 120 cm size goes above a sofa, where the scene takes over the wall. At 150 x 150 cm we are at the sizes where a large painting really gets air and the surface opens into sheer layers of colour. Measure your chosen size on the wall with a paper cut-out first; with a square the mistake is almost always made in the hanging height. None of the sizes is held in stock as a finished item: every copy is made to order and stays a single piece.
Custom size, stretcher bar and frame
If none of the eight sizes suits your wall, or if you want the original’s proportion, we paint to your measurements and keep the proportions of the scene, so that the body does not lose its height and the basin at the left edge keeps its space; that is our painting made to order. Every copy is delivered stretched on a wooden bar, ready to hang. For the frame, use our 3D application: on this motif it shows every moulding profile we carry, so you can compare gold, silver, black, white and natural wood – it is for choosing a frame and nothing else. If you want to see how the work looks on your own wall, that is our separate room-placement service.
Delivery and guarantee
Every copy is made to order in our studio, so allow 15 to 45 days depending on the size you choose; for the largest sizes the time is usually at the upper end. We send it stretched and protected for transport, framed if you chose a frame, to sixteen countries in the European Union, without customs duties. You receive a photograph of the finished work for approval before dispatch, and our returns policy applies to every order. The whole range is in the Edgar Degas gallery, and the painter’s life is described in our article about Edgar Degas.
Frequently asked questions
What is happening in the scene?
A woman kneels bent forward after her bath and reaches down with her arms towards a shallow basin. There is no event and no second person.
What is the dark basin at the lower left?
A shallow basin with a pale rim, set on a white cloth. It is the only object in the scene and it stands at the lower left edge, not above.
Why is the face barely visible?
Because the head is bowed to the left and turned away. In the late bathers Degas often chose exactly this position.
Is the original a painting or a pastel?
A pastel on paper. That is why the surface is dry and granular, and why the strokes do not merge into one another.
Is our version a pastel?
No. Ours is painted in oil colours on canvas; the composition, the colours and the proportions follow the original, while the surface is by nature more continuous.
Where is the original located?
In the Courtauld Gallery in London, under the inventory number D.1932.SC.27.
Why does the table give an approximate year?
Because the record dates it approximately, marked “circa”. The product name carries the bare year, the record is more cautious, and we follow the record.
How large is the original?
67,7 by 57,8 cm, so a little taller than it is wide. Our 70 x 70 and 75 x 77 cm sizes come closest.
Why are our sizes square?
Because this motif is offered here in a square range of sizes. If you want the original’s proportion, we paint it to your measurements.
Is this a print?
No. The work is painted by hand in oil on canvas; the brushstrokes are visible and can be felt.
Is it suitable as a gift?
Yes, especially for someone who likes strong warm colours and the classical nude. Because every copy is made to order, allow for the making time; if you would rather leave the choice to them, there is our gift voucher.
- Subject: a nude figure from behind, bent over a shallow basin, orange and red across the whole surface
- Original: Edgar Degas, pastel on paper, 67,7 x 57,8 cm, Courtauld Gallery in London (D.1932.SC.27)
- Ours: hand-painted in oil, eight sizes from 50 x 50 to 150 x 150 cm, stretched and framed on request
- Worth knowing: the only cool colour in the scene is the blue-grey cloth under the hip – everything else burns in orange and red
