Description
After the Bath (bending figure) shows a nude woman drying herself after her bath, bent forward and turned away from the viewer; her hair is red, and the scene is carried by orange and blue woven across the whole surface. As a canvas painting this is a wide, landscape-format scene of an everyday action, with no look towards the viewer. For this work we found no museum record, so we give neither a year of execution nor the technique of the original nor a collection – exactly what and why is set out below. We make it as a hand-painted oil on linen, in sizes from 40 x 30 to 120 x 90 cm or to your own measurements, and you receive a photograph of the finished work for approval before dispatch.
| Title: | After the Bath (bending figure) |
| Painter: | Edgar Degas |
| Subject: | a nude figure bent forward and turned away, red hair, orange and blue |
| Our reproduction: | hand-painted oil on linen canvas, 8 sizes from 40 x 30 cm to 120 x 90 cm, custom sizes on request |
After the Bath (bending figure) – Edgar Degas
What does the scene show?
A single figure, unnamed. The woman, bent forward, is drying her back and shoulders; her face is turned to the side and is effectively not visible. This is not a pose. The scene would be exactly the same if nobody were looking, and that is its heart – the viewer is an observer, not the person being addressed. In his late years Degas made a large series of such 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 landscape, noticeably wider than it is high, and the figure fills it almost to the edges. The body leans forward, the back is turned towards us, the arm with the towel reaches over the shoulder. The hair is red and is the strongest single colour in the whole scene. Around the body and behind it orange and blue spread out – not as a wall and not as cloth, but as a mass of colour that surrounds the body and pushes it forward. There are almost no sharp edges; the forms hold together by colour rather than by line. At the lower left stands the signature.
Why does this particular scene matter?
Because it shows Degas at the far edge of his late work. The motif has narrowed to a single action while the colour has spread across everything else: space, cloth and skin are made of the same material and differ only in warmth. The scene is therefore at once entirely ordinary and almost abstract – legible enough that you see at once what is happening, and loose enough that under a longer look it falls apart into sheer layers of colour. For a wall today that is an unusually rewarding combination: the motif is quiet while the surface is alive.
What does the scene mean?
Nothing narrative. There is no event, no second person, no look towards us. The body is occupied with a completely ordinary action and for exactly that reason reads as true rather than displayed. The scene is nude, but its tone is one of observation and not of display; it reads as calm rather than insistent. 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.
What we deliberately do not state here: the year of execution, the technique of the original, the name of the collection and the inventory number. A woman drying herself after the bath is one of the most repeated of all Degas’s motifs – it exists in dozens of autograph versions that share both the pose and the format, so no museum record can be assigned with certainty to this particular work. The search was carried out twice and twice ended without a match; we do not hide that and we do not help ourselves along with guesswork. The surface is granular and dry and suggests pastel more than oil, but that is an observation made by looking and not a fact from a record, so we do not assert the technique. We do not copy second-hand data; we say what is visible on the work. What is also visible is a name, signed at the lower left.
The motif among Degas’s works
The bath and the bathers are among Degas’s great late subjects. Closest to this scene in our range are After the Bath, where the same moment burns in orange and red, and Bather Stretched out on Floor, where the figure lies stretched out and the format is wider still. If you want to see the same subject out of doors and with several people, look at Peasant Girls Bathing in the Sea at Dusk. All three works show how Degas turned the same action through different formats and different ranges of colour.
How is our hand-painted version made?
With a brush and oil colours, not a printer. Every one of our canvases is made by hand, layer after layer, and this scene in particular is demanding: the colour has to stay visible as an individual stroke, or the orange and the blue merge into a single flat surface and the scene loses its life. The painter therefore lays down short, separated strokes and leaves the ground open between them. The hardest part is keeping the softness of the transitions on the body without the skin turning smooth as porcelain. 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: 80 x 60 cm. The format is landscape and relatively quiet, so it works well above a chest of drawers, a bed or a sofa. The 40 x 30 and 50 x 40 cm sizes are for a smaller room, a hallway or a narrow wall between doors; 59 x 50 and 70 x 55 cm suit a desk or a bedroom; 80 x 60 and 90 x 70 cm are the sizes above a chest and are the ones most people choose, because at them the figure is large enough for the red hair and the blue tones to read properly. The 100 x 80 cm size goes above a sofa, where the scene takes over the wall. At 120 x 90 cm we are at the sizes where a large painting really gets air and the surface opens into sheer layers of colour – that is the size for a long, empty wall. Measure your chosen size on the wall with a paper cut-out first; with a landscape format the mistake is almost always made in the width. 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, we paint to your measurements and keep the proportions of the scene, so that the figure does not lose her width and the orange and blue around her keep their 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 is drying herself after her bath, bent forward. There is no event and no second person.
Why are the year, the technique and the collection missing?
Because we found no museum record for this work that would confirm them. The motif exists in dozens of versions, the search was carried out twice, and twice without a match. We would rather write nothing than guess.
What is visible at the lower left?
A signature written by hand. It is the only writing in the scene and our painter carries it across exactly as it is.
Is this a print?
No. This version is painted by hand in oil on canvas; the brushstrokes are visible and can be felt.
Which size should I choose?
Above a chest of drawers or a bed usually 80 x 60 cm, for a smaller room 50 x 40 cm. The size guide is above.
Can I have a size that is not listed?
Yes, we paint to measure and keep the proportions of the scene while doing it.
Is it suitable as a gift?
Yes, especially for someone who likes 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 bent forward and turned away, red hair, orange and blue across the whole surface
- Original: Edgar Degas; year, technique, collection and inventory number are deliberately not stated, because no record could be found
- Ours: hand-painted in oil, eight sizes from 40 x 30 to 120 x 90 cm, stretched and framed on request
- Worth knowing: the signature at the lower left is the only writing in the scene – and the only firm fact we have about this work
