Degas, Realism, and the Bathing Nudes

Abstract

Edgar Degas, the nineteenth-century French painter who was seen as one of the founders of Impressionism, was most famous for his images of modern life in Paris – a subject matter that notably included a series of bathing nudes. Although he was involved in the Impressionist exhibitions of the 1870s and 1880s, Degas differed in style from his fellow Impressionists, leaning more towards Realism. His career as an artist included the production of numerous images of women in various situations, poses, and settings, including prostitutes in brothel scenes and unsuspecting nudes attending to their personal business. In the Eighth Impressionist exhibit of 1886, he exhibited a series of pastel images of female nudes bathing and combing their hair. The unflattering way in which he depicted these women, as well as information about his personal life (such as the fact that he never married), earned Degas the reputation of being a misogynist by critics such as Joris-Karl Huysmans, who was one of the first to discuss the degradation displayed in Degas’s images of women.