1880
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
Leaving the Bath is a 1880 by Edgar Degas, a Impressionism work, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.
A woman steps out of a bathtub, her back turned to us. A maid holds a cloth, half-hidden behind it. The room feels small and private, like we’re peeking in. Degas often painted bathers, but here the angle makes us feel like we shouldn’t be looking. The lines are loose, almost like a quick sketch, but the scene feels real. He liked showing everyday moments, not grand poses. If you like this, check out more of Edgar Degas (French, 1834–1917)—his other bathers play with the same quiet, private views.
In Leaving the Bath , a woman is seen from behind as she awkwardly grips a tub while cautiously stepping out of it. Nearby, a maid is mostly obscured by a cloth meant to dry and warm her. Their sketchlike surroundings communicate intimacy and privacy and, in what would become a characteristic aspect of his bather imagery, Edgar Degas places the viewer in a voyeuristic perspective, with the two women unaware of our presence. The artist began to explore etching in the 1850s, registering in the print department of Paris’s Bibliothèque Nationale so that he could closely study the works of past…
Edgar Degas created this print by drawing on a copper plate, not with a traditional etching needle, but with a copper rod—a component of early electric lamps. This nontraditional tool produced an effect that Degas appreciated, and he experimented further after bringing the plate home by working on it with materials ranging from an emery pencil to a stone.
Read the full account in the museum source.
Born Hilaire-Germain-Edgar De Gas on 19 July 1834 in Paris, Edgar Degas came from an affluent banking family with aristocratic roots and spent his childhood among the cultivated circles of the French capital.
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