I posted a picture of myself in the bathtub recently on instagram along with one of my favorites from Degas’ pastel serious of nudes and was quite disappointed with the “creepy “ and “I don’t understand it” comments. That means that the only thing that those people understand is probably pictures of naked asses. I think I should try to aim at a different audience. Actually, my idea is to make a series of pastels out of these photos I made of myself. I have a thing for the theme bathing nudes. When I saw Degas’ bathers at the Met I was fascinated and thought something like “Wow he was not as boring as I thought. These are beautiful” I have to say I was really surprised when I found out that not everyone thinks so. When i showed the pastels to my friends, most of them said that bathers are ugly. Then I found out that the series had a controversial critical response, so people are not morons. No actually, the right way to put it is that not only those who said did’t like bather are, but there were more… of those… I didn’t put the numbers on works because I am too lazy. It’s obvious which one is which anyways.
Degas, Bather Stepping Into a Tub, Pastel and charcoal on blue laid paper 1890, The Met
Degas exhibited a collection of his series of pastel nudes at the eighth Impressionist exhibition in Paris in 1886, under the title: “Series of nude women bathing, washing, drying themselves, combing their hair or having it combed (pastels)”. The display brought Degas controversial press attention with his nudes receiving both admiration and criticism. A well-known 19th century French writer and art critic Joris-Karl Huysmans said that Degas had “brought an attentive cruelty and a patient hatred to bear upon his studies of nudes” Huysmans critical analysis of Degas’ representation of the nude figures provoked artist’s reputation as a misogynist. His other contemporary, writer Paul Valery, who personally met Degas and observed that the artist enjoyed authenticity and vulnerability of women in their private settings also stated: “He was charmed by it. There is an element of misogyny in his enjoy”
While some critics accused him of misogyny, claimed that he violated commonly accepted notions of femininity, and called the “naked figures female animals”, other artists and critics strongly disagreed with those accusations and admired the collection of his nudes. The biggest art collector Durand Ruel purchased the first two of Degas’ pastel nude works.
So I was thinking… What exactly, however, caused such contrasting and controversial reception of Degas’ representation of the nude figures?Look at the Bather Stepping into a Tub, for example. Following a long tradition of bathers portrayed according to the rules of classical art, the work shows how Degas’ representation of the nude informed his own vision of modernity, and how the artist, though influenced by masters of previous generations, challenged the tradition of an idealized nude in favor of a figure portrayed in her realistic private setting, simply stepping into a metal bath.
Degas depicts a woman with her back turned as she enters a zinc bathtub, located in a corner, with her right leg inside. She is standing with her limbs outstretched and with both hands on the edges of the tub to hold herself up. Her insecure, forward-bending pose as she tries to get in manifests an unusual combination of physical awkwardness and sensuality that characterizes his bathers. What is “misogynist” about this particular work that provoked critical proclamations about Degas persona that are still being speculated ? The motif of a nude figure has been explored by a variety of artists, including Degas contemporaries. But he particularly, however, received such strong blame and disapproval for his nudes? Let’s compare the works depicting the same subject matter by Degas’ colleagues.
Renoir, La Baigneuse blonde, oil on canvas, 1882, Pinacoteca Agnelli, Turin
A clear example of fundamental differences between Degas’ bathers and depiction of a nude figure by his colleagues can be seen in the style of Auguste Renoir, who portrayed his future wife, Aline Charigot, in his work Blonde Hair Bather while traveling in Italy. Like the ancient goddess, the model sits outdoors as the waters of the sea softly lap at the stones behind her and light breeze blows through her blonde hair and the Neapolitan sun warms her body, dyeing the shadows with hints of pink and blue. The image is so sexual though. Based on this painting and a couple of others, I think of Renoir as an adult entertainment artist. Nowadays he would be great at shooting porn magazines.
In contrast, the representation of Degas' bathers is rather crude, raw, and unromantic. Bathers illustrate Degas' distinctive experience in presenting a nude figure without appealing to sexuality. The women's postures do not appeal to the aesthetic attraction of the audience.
These contrasting artistic approaches to the genre formed a distinction between the definitions of “the naked” and “the nude”. Notable scholars including art historians Kenneth Clark and John Berger explored and outlined the dichotomy between these two definitions. Bathers are naked, obviously.
Look at Degas’ bather I posted above. Degas presents a natural physical awkwardness and refutes idealization of the woman's curves. The color of her skin does not appear as vibrant or evenly fused. Her body shape is not aesthetically perfect. The use of pastel and rough charcoal lines to form the contours of the figure does not define her curves, indicating that the artist does not intend to sexualize or romanticize her appearance. The authenticity and imperfection of a female figure depicted in the midst of an intimate bathing process dominate the overall sensory experience of Degas' work. Comparing the two bathers by Degas and Renoir, Degas’ work seems to be so much more moral. But still, Degas is the bad guy.
These central differences in the representations of female nude by the two impressionists are also reflected through the prism of their personal perceptions of womanhood: the ring on the finger of the woman represented in Renoir’s work is an engagement ring given to her by the artist. Degas, however kept his personal life private, and there is still very little known about his romantic relationships. The art history scholar Robert Herbert in his most well-known work on impressionists “Impressionism: Art, Leisure and Parisian Society” states that, unlike his contemporaries, “Degas felt comfortable using his housekeeper as a model, perhaps because the relationship was so familiar and so clear, employer to employee. He was partial to working people-jockeys, ballet dancers, singers, and laundresses constitute about two-thirds of his vast out- put-partly because they were free of bourgeois pretension.” Unlike his contemporaries, Degas chose to instill masculine energy in his nude figures, rather than classical romanticism. While critics accused him of animalistic portrayal of female nude figure, artist Delacroix, Degas’ greatest inspiration, actually centered his principles of creating the strength of the bodily movement around his depiction of wild animals. Kenneth Clark in his most famous book “The Nude: a Study in Ideal Form” so well noted the influence of Delacroix’s nudes on Degas approach to the subject: if we look at Delacroix’s Female Wrestlers we can see that our Bather Stepping into a Tub resembles the central warrior of Delacroix’s drawing. Degas’ bather’s muscular figure and warrior position creates a sense of a battle, as the woman is struggling while getting into the bathtub warrior posture of the bather is indeed almost identical to the Delacroix’s wrestler, the one in the center.
Of course, I don’t know if Degas’ was a misogynist or not, I don’t think I care, because he is dead. If he was’t dead though, I bet that 100% Renoir would be more likely to accused of something by the me toos. Anyways, here are a few more awesome bathers.
