Saw the Degas exhibit at the MFA a couple times and know what is awesome there? This piece:
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| After the Bath, Woman with a Towel |
The show closed on February 5th, but happily, this piece is owned by the Fogg Art Museum at Harvard so anybody in the Boston area can go and visit it there.
The drawing was done with pastel on blue-gray wove paper and is 27 7/8 x 22 9/16 inches.
There is so much color, it is hard to even get the full sense of it from just seeing the image, you really need to go and visit it. Completed somewhere between 1893 and 1897, I was unprepared to see such vibrant colors used so long ago. It really does feel like long ago, so much in art has happened since then, but really, it should be no surprise. Wikipedia says that the first time the French word “pastel” was used was in 1662. It is so hard to get a true feeling of time over the course of history. Anyway, bright color just seem like such a contemporary idea, what a refreshing thing to be wrong about.
I was also impressed by all of the vertical and horizontal lines going on in Degas’ drawings throughout his work. So much structure, it aligns with the industrialization that was going on at the time I suppose, but it speaks to pixels now. Other pieces I loved:
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| After the Bath, Woman Drying Her Chest Made around 1890 Pastel on tracing Paper The Courtland Gallery, London |
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| Woman at her Bath Made around 1895 Oil on canvas 28 x 35 inches |
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| Woman Seated on a Bathtub, Sponging her Neck Made around 1895 Oil on paper Musee d'Orsay, Paris |
The show also had many pieces by other artists who served as both inspirations and peers to Degas. One of the pieces that I just have not got enough of yet is a painting by Picasso.
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| Nude on a Red Background Oil on canvas Musee de l'Orangerie, Paris |
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