Jacques-Louis David

I must admit I’m really quite ignorant when it comes to art. I have never researched artists and their art before and have really no clue how the different periods lend their influence to their work. So going through the books in Lily library really was quite an experience. It was difficult to concentrate on the drawings of artists as most books focused on paintings instead. Most of the drawings were also really sketchy and didn’t have the intricate detailing that all the paintings had. I absolutely love strong lines and rather defined drawings that incorporate the tiniest of details. Hence I chose Jacques Louis David. To me, his drawings incorporated a nice mix of the hard lines and the strong dark shading that really made his work stand out for me. He doesn’t seem to be afraid to making the dark marks that make his work rather bold. David’s attention to precision detail and structure also make his work rather “exact” and life-like, which I enjoy.

Brief Biological Information

Jacques-Louis David (30 August 1748, Paris – 29 December 1825, Brussels) was the leader of the French neoclassical movement. He was born in Paris to a well-to-do bourgeois family, who placed him in the studio of famous rococo painter Francois Boucher. In 1775 he moved on to study ancient architectural monuments, marble reliefs and freestanding statues under Joseph Marie Vien in Rome, a painter who was attracted instead to antiquity. In 1771, David won second prize in the Prix de Rome competition, but it was not until 3 years later after much mental frustration, that he won first prize with his painting: Antiochus Dying for the Love of Stratonice. He was admitted to the French Academy in 1783 with his painting Andromache by the Body of Hector.

He was an outspoken political support and espoused the cause of the French Revolution, making him effectively a dictator of the arts under the French Republic. Imprisoned after Robespierre’s fall from power, Jacques emerged a more politically shrewd painter and aligned himself yet again with Napoleon when he came to power; acting willingly as his artistic spokesman. David executed a number of portraits of the emperor, the most notable of which is probably that entitled Bonaparte Crossing the St. Bernard Pass (1800), in which Napoleon was idealized in physical stature and romanticized as the effortless man of action.He also made paintings of many colossal scenes treating specific episodes of his rein including the Coronation of Napoleon and Josephine.

With Napoleon’s defeat at Waterloo, David tried to retreat into quiet seclusion, but his earlier political affiliation, and actions during the French Revolution obstructed his plans. He was declared persona non grata and fled to Switzerland. He settled in Brussels and continued to paint until his death in 1825. His ashes were denied in France and he was buried amidst great pomp in the Church of Ste – Gudule in Brussels.

Style

Jacques Louis David early turned his back on the frivolous rococo manner, looking instead to antiquity for inspiration. He sought to reduce classical principles to their barest essentials. David had a clear understanding of the classical principles underlying the styles of the Renaissance and the Baroque periods. His work was highly influenced by the Roman style and was soon thoroughly imbued with the tenets of classicism.

David’s paintings reflect a strong interest in archeological exactitude in the depiction of figures and settings. His work carefully calculates the severity of composition and its emphasis on a sculptural harness of precise drawing, which he saw as more important than colour, which often contributed to the severity of the situations he loved depicting.

When the revolution was in full swing, David for a time abandoned his classical approach and began to paint scenes describing contemporary events, among them the unfinished Oath of the Tennis Court (1791).

He also concentrated on making portraits of the martyred heroes of the fight for freedom, including the Death of Marat (1793) and Death of Joseph Bara (1794), with a rather strong sense of realism. He was in fact at his best as a portraitist. Some of his portraits were executed with such directness and summarized the studied elegance of the neoclassical age with much perfection.

Works

Belisaire demandant L'aumone

1781. Oil on canvas. 288 x 312 cm.

Musée des Beaux-Arts, Lille, France.

Le triomphe de peuple francaise

Paris, Ecole nationale superieure des Beaux-Arts

Horace vainqueur rentrant dans Rome

1781 Pen and black ink, grey wash. 27,5 x 38,7 cm Inv. 12 676 F.S.31

Laetizia Bonaparte, vue de face et en buste
Black Pencil. H. 176; L. 112.
Inscription at the bottom:
S.A.I Madame mere /

de S.M. l'Empereur / par david

Napoleon dans son cabinet de travail
Mine de plomb, H.226; L.128
Besancon, Musee des Beaux-Arts et D'archeologie

SOURCES

1. http://www.j acquesl ouisdavid.org/
2. ALL IMAGES: Rosenberg, Pierre and Louis-Antoine Prat. Jacques-Louis David 1748-1825, Catalogue raisonné des dessins, Tome 1. Mondadori Electa Spa, 2002. Milan.
3. Stein, Perrin. French Drawings from the British Museum: Clouet to Seurat. The British Museum Press and The Metropolitan Museum of Art. 2005.
4. http://www.biography.com/articles/Jacques-Louis-David-9267043

Gustave Courbet

Self-Portrait with Pipe. 1848

Gustave Courbet was an influential Realist painter and rebellious bohemian. He sought to capture the world around him, declaring "painting is an essentially concrete art, and can consist only of representation of real and existing things." He is believed to be the inventor of Realism and actually coined the term, in spite of later claiming he didn't understand the meaning of the word. For long time most formal definitions failed to fully describe realism without mentioning Courbet's work.

Born on June 10, 1819 to a well-off farming family, Courbet was very independent. When he was eighteen he wrote to his parents, who would've preferred he study law, "If I am to be an exception to every rule in every way, I'm off to pursue my destiny," and in 1839 settled in Paris to study art. There, he studied under Steuben and Hesse until he left to work on creating his own style. He studied the works of masters from various countries, analyzing and copying their paintings. He decided to pursue greater recognition with a larger painting, one that would prove his worth as an artist. In 1849, he received a gold medal for After Dinner at Ornans at the Salon exhibition in Paris. However, he truly gained the art world's attention and criticism with A Burial at Ornans. This painting depicted an ordinary funeral in a small town without the poetic uplifting feel to which art patrons of the time were accustomed and on a scale reserved for history paintings. A few of his other painting were also received as scandalously, including Young Ladies of the Village and The Bathers.

Courbet seemed accustomed to his seat in the center of controversy. He was the first artist to sponsor his own self-financed exhibitions. When offered a knighthood cross in the French Legion of Honor, he refused. In 1871 he was blamed for the destruction of the Vendôme Column during his participation in the political riots. He was sent to prison for six months, after which he fled to Switzerland, where he died on December 31, 1877.

The Artist Seated at His Easel. 1847

I chose these first two drawings because air of confidence they present. Courbet uses expressive lines and dark lighting to convey a more relaxed feel than most self-portraits prior to his work. These two were part of a series of self-portraits that Courbet considered almost an autobiography.

The Sleeping Reader. 1849

This drawing contrasts the various textures, and dark value of the background serves to bring the subject more attention. This drawing played to Courbet's favorite themes, interrupted activity or misdemeanor.

Sources:
Amic et al. Gustave Courbet (New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art 2008)
Weisberg. The Realist Tradition: French Painting and drawing, 1830-1900 (Cleveland: Museum of Art 1
Gustave Courbet's A Burial at Ornans. PBS. 9 Oct. 2009 http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/cultureshock/flashpoints/visualarts/courbett.html.

Andrea Mantegna

As an art history major and as an artist, I decided to research an artist whose work influenced and inspired me personally. Andrea Mantegna's work is both aesthetically appealing and thought provoking. His work emerged in a time that was riddled with artistic discovery and revival, the Renaissance. A trademark of Mantegna was his ability to create depth on a two dimensional surface. He achieved this by way of perspective and foreshortening. Mantegna's mastery of these techniques directly affected the work of Bramante, Michelangelo, and Raphael.



Camera Degli Sposi. 1473. Fresco St. James on the way to his Execution The Lamentation over the Dead Christ
1455. Fresco 1500. Tempera on Canvas



Biography:

Born in Italy, in 1431, Andrea Mantegna trained at the Padua School. There, he acquired an affinity for classical art forms and the antique. In his career, Mantegna was a painter and an engraver. At a relatively early time during his career, he began to receive many notable commissions because of his innovative ideas and modern style, as it pertains to art. As an artist, he worked in Padua, Venice, and eventually, Mantua. Looking at many Mantegna artworks, the viewer feels that he/she is looking up. Mantegna's most accomplished work is "The Bridal Suite."

Bibliography:

Manca, Joseph. Andrea Mantegna and the Italian Renaissance. 2006.

Di Nicolo Salmazo, Alberta. Andrea Mantegna. 2004

http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/mantegna/

Georges Seurat

Georges-Pierre Seurat was born on December 2, 1859 in Paris to an upper middleclass family. As a child, Seurat drew, although nothing really remarkable, and was thought to be encouraged to keep drawing by his uncle. In 1875, he dropped out of school at the age of fifteen and enrolled in a local drawing school in Paris for a little bit before advancing to the École des Beaux-Arts. Due to his privileged financial circumstances, Seurat was at liberty to pursue his art without the pressure to sell any of his artworks to make a profit. That may explain his unhurried nature: he was the last to submit his paintings for exhibition among his contemporaries.

Before painting, Seurat spent several years practicing drawing. He liked to work with conté (a hard and greasy crayon) on Michallet (a brand of “Ingres paper”). When Seurat brushed the conté across the thick paper, the crayon would catch on the tiny microscopic hooks that protruded from the paper, leaving valleys between the hooks untouched. Thus, his choice of mediums lent themselves to a three dimensional image. Furthermore, rather than lines, Seurat was more interested in tonality. Here in Woman Sewing, we can see that there are almost no distinct lines; the detailed tones give depth to this image. There are no hard edges, as spaces seem to blend together to model a soft light falling on the subject. But his canvas is rich in white, grays, and black. He covers every inch of the canvas, leaving hardly any white space to create a richer image as well. His aim was to “construct an ensemble that was unified by tone alone” (Thomson 24).

Seurat's interest in tones in his drawings can perhaps be expressed in his attention to colors in his paintings. His three objectives in painting were “the application of the laws of color, controlled handling of paint, and disciplined composition” (Thomson 39). Seurat studied the scientist-writers of Michel Eugène Chevreul and David Sutter, who wrote extensively on theories of light and color. Seurat understood that color-light and color-pigment behaved differently—he knew that paint would not replicate the way things looked in natural circumstances. He experimented extensively with color and played around with complementary pigments because he learned early on that he had to keep his colors separate in order for complementary colors to stand out more.

He needed a suitable brushwork that would enhance the idea of optical mixture. His method became the brushwork of balayé, which was a criss-crossing stroke that he used for most of his career. In Horse and Cart done in 1883, we can see this criss-crossing of the brush and how the colors are very vibrant because of his method of juxtaposition of complementary colors.

One of his most famous works, Une Baignade, Asnieères, which was his formal debut of painting in 1884, further demonstrates Seurat’s usage of color. His painting had several layers, suggesting that he didn’t know what the end product color would be.

Here, we have a cross-section of the layers of paint used to depict the central seated figure of Une Baignade. We note the superimposition of different colors all played their parts to enhance the overall color tone of his skin. Once again, we note the presence of light and brightness and plein air (outdoors) in the painting, which is characteristic of Impressionism.

It was arguably his most famous work, Un Dimanche à La Grande Jatte completed in 1886, that really catapulted Seurat into the avant-garde of contemporary Impressionism. He helped lead the new movement, which was largely characterized by the use of points (pointillism) to enhance the vibrancy of each individual color.

In La Grande Jatte, Seurat began his first layers with sweeping brush strokes before going back and reworking with the addition of points to capture his sensitive observations of color and light. From a distance, the painting itself gives off a sense of deep space as the painter places the viewer in the foreground of deep shadow and draws his gaze towards the distance where it gradually becomes lighter and brighter. Also, the action in this painting takes places in the distance by the boats and water whereas in the foreground, the mood is very still, which again draws us deeper instead of lingering in the foreground.

Between 1886-1888, Seurat actively promoted the group of Neo-Impressionists that included himself, Lucien Pissaro, and Paul Signac through his continued involvement with the Society of Indepdenent Artists, established in 1884. The Society was formed as an outgrowth of the Salon of the Refused formed by earlier Impressionists. They also held dinners and exhibits, which helped the Neo-Impressionists gather momentum and exposure for their movement. Seurat died March 29 1891 from illess but the Neo-Impressionism was carried on by Signac.Here, we have a cross-section of the layers of paint used to depict the central seated figure of Une Baignade. We note the superimposition of different colors all played their parts to enhance the overall color tone of his skin. Once again, we note the presence of light and brightness and plein air (outdoors) in the painting, which is characteristic of Impressionism.

I chose to study Seurat because I was interested in his use of colors, particularly how the image looks different up close and far away. I think pointillism is a unique technique that gives images an optical illusion and is very similar to the idea of modern day pixels—how the blending of just three primary colors can create a myriad rainbow. I’ve always been fascinated by this concept and I think Seurat was a precursor to this technology.

Sources:

Leighton, John, Richard, Thomson, David Bomford, Jo Kirby, Ashok Roy. Seurat and The Bathers. London: National Gallery Publications Limited, 1997. Print.

Thomson, Richard. Seurat. Salem: Salem House, 1985. Print.

Vincent Van Gogh

Vincent Van Gogh

1853-1890
Figure 1. Self-Portrait, 1887 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:VanGogh_1887_Selbstbildnis.jpg)
This self-portrait is one of many Van Gogh made to support himself in Paris. It is a great display of expressive color and short brushstrokes.

This summer I was able to see Sunflowers (Figure 2) in the National Gallery in London, and I thought I would further explore the life and works of this influential artist. Almost everyone has seen Starry Night by Van Gogh, but in his short life (37 years), Van Gogh completed around 2,000 artworks.



Figure 2. Sunflowers, 1888 (http://www.artquotes.net/masters/vangogh/vangogh_sunflowers1888.jpg)
This is the painting I saw in The National Gallery. Sunflowers were a theme in many of Van Gogh's paintings and in his life and he painted sunflowers in all of their stages of life. Something interesting about these paintings is that they involve the use of yellow, a new pigment in that time. This is a quote from one of his letters, "Now that I hope to live with Gauguin in a studio of our own, I want to make decorations for the studio. Nothing but big flowers".
Brief Biography

Van Gogh is considered one of the biggest influences on Modern Art. This is in stark contrast to the little fame he received during his lifetime. A Dutch painter, Van Gogh worked in London, Paris and other parts of England. Around the age of 20, Van Gogh began working for art dealers, but ultimately stopped this work because of his resentfulness towards the financial aspects of art. After this Van Gogh had many stints in various professions, all of which were not satisfying to him. In 1879, he began attending the Royal Academy of Art in the Netherlands after this and began his career as an artist. He spent time working on his art in Etten, The Hague, Antwerp, and Nennen and produced drawings, water colors and oil paintings. In 1886, he moved to Paris to study under Ferdinand Cormon and was influenced by international art such as Japanese woodblock prints. Towards the end of his life in 1888, he moved to Arles in France to deal with his physical and mental illnesses and to find a refuge with other artists. In 1889, Van Gogh checked into an asylum near Arles. He continued his work from this time and produced some of of famous works (such as Starry Night); the swirls from this painting are characterisitic of many of his paintings made in the asylum. In 1890 Van Gogh checked out of the hospital to move closer to his doctor, and soon after entered a serious period of depression which ended in a suicide with a gun.

Style and Techniques

Atmosphere--When painting a landscape Van Gogh would use the term "effect" to describe a landscape that was particularly picturesque. When used the term "atmosphere" he referred to something in a scene that would move the viewer. These concepts affected his works and admired painters who according to him, employed these effects.

Idealism and Realism--While expressionism did not yet exist at the time Van Gogh was a painter, Idealism and Realism did, both of which influenced Van Gogh. Idealism refers to the idea that history and figure painting moved a viewer, while realists thought that broader subjects with personal meaning did. Van Gogh used aspects of both types of thought but his main belief was though the expressiveness of art was the most important thing. In other words, the "idea" of a work was the most important quality.

Impressionism--While in Paris Van Gogh noted the contemporary shift towards Impressionism and was inspired by the modern themes of Impressionist painters in Paris. The main technique used in these paintings was virtuoso brush strokes.

Expressive Color--Van Gogh is especially known for his use of color and his ability to use it expressively. Expressive color is based on the idea that colors are not dependent on reality, but rather the context of the colors in which it is. Color became the tool for Van Gogh to show his expressiveness.
Figure 3. Starry Night, 1889 (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/66/VanGogh-starry_night_ballance1.jpg)
This painting was made during Van Gogh's stay at the asylum and shows expressive color as well as swirls characteristic of the paintings made during his stay at the asylum. Starry Night has a permanent stake in pop-culture and is probably Van Gogh's best known piece.

I believe a quote from Chris Stolwijk best describes the power of Van Gogh's paintings and life's works "He saw art not as the most effective expression of an artist's individual emotions, but as an opportunity to impart universal values to the viewer, through themes and motifs taken from real life. He used selective formal devices such as color in order to give his work optimal expressive power" (Lloyd, J., Peppiatt, M.).


Works Cited
Thomson, Belinda. Van Gogh. The Art Institute of Chicago, 2001.
Pach, Walter. Vincent Van Gogh, 1853-1890: A study of the Artist and His Work in Relation to His TImes. New York: Books for Libraries Press, 1969.
Lloyd, J., Peppiatt, M.(ed.). Van Gogh and Expressionsim. Germany: Hatje Cantz Verlag, 2007.

Albrecht Durer

Albrecht Durer

Born 21 May 1471, death 6 April 1528, Albrecht Durer became one of the most lauded artists in his time. His mark upon any work carried with it a trademark or guarantee of quality.

Posthumously, he also transitioned into one of the most historically significant artists of all time. His resounding affect on the themes and role of art in the world is still being explored today.

Biography:

Durer was born in Nuremberg, Germany to a Hungarian goldsmith father and German mother. His godfather was a prominent publisher of the Nuremberg Chronicle, a widely circulated

publication. He initially entered as an apprentice to his father in the goldsmith profession, but soon begged out to become the apprentice to an artist, Michael Wolgemut. Wolgemut

was the engraver and illustrator of the Nuremberg Chronicle. He apprenticed under Wolgemut for three years prior to taking some "gap years" in his education to travel to Switzerland

and other locales in Northern Europe. He was married to Agnes Frey on his return (a fruitless marriage but not an unhappy one). Later the same year, he traveled to Italy both to learn

from current masters in the region and to escape an outbreak of plague in Germany. He opened his own engraving shop and employed many master engravers and woodcutters from the Nuremberg Chronicle. As his works gained a larger circulation, he was commissioned for works in Venice by wealthy humanists, in Germany by the Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian, and in the Netherlands. By his death of fever in 1528, he had become one of the wealthiest citizens in Germany and had risen to an almost unrivaled celebrity in Europe. Upon his death he left almost 1000 distinct drawings and two published novels as his legacy.

Influences:

His primary influences included Andrea Mantegna, Giovanni Bellini, and Lorenzo di Credi. However, his driving force in the revolution of woodcut and printmaking was simply an inner desire to push the medium to never before seen heights of detail and precision. The revelation of his work was a distinctive combination of Renaissance/Italian styles with Northern European artforms and media.

Landscapes:

One of the lasting contributions of Albrecht Durer is his dedication to the pure landscape. His watercolors (made on his way to Italy for the first time) are the earliest Western pure landscape studies to survive to modern times.

Study of a Rock-Face in a Quarry near Nuremberg

c. 1496 Watercolor and bodycolor over black chalk

225 x 287 mm

Landscape with a Woodland Pool

c.1496

Base sketch for final drawing done in:

Watercolor and bodycolor

262 x 365 mm

Fisherman's House on a Lake Near Nuremberg

c. 1496 Watercolor and bodycolor

213 x 225 mm

As one can see, Durer supplemented the freedom of watercolor painting with an intricately detailed sketch base with which to work.

Process (Italian art in new media):

Studies for the Hand and Arm of Adam, and Rocks and Bushes

c. 1504 Pen and borwn and black ink

216 x 275 mm

Adam and Eve

c. 1504 Engraving

Adam and Eve

c. 1507 Oil on panel

Here we see the adaptation of Italian styles into new media as well as Durer's customary attention to minute details. We can see his process in these three images moving from detailed

studies of the human form to an engraving to a finished oil painting in a traditional Renaissance style.

Mastery of Engraving and the Engraver's tool (burin):

Durer is primarily known for his engraving Melancholia which shows the connection between a depressed state and the act of creating art. These three engravings are often considered his

masterworks and have been imitated, discussed, and parodied heavily since their creation. Specifically, the use of Hitler as the Knight cavorting with Death and the Devil.

St. Jerome in His Study

c. 1514 Engraving

248 x 189 mm

Knight, Death, and the Devil

c.1513 Engraving

246 x 190 mm

Melancholia

c. 1514 Engraving

242 x 188 mm

Hitler as Durer's Knight (Lanzinger)

c. 1938

Books and Publications:

Among all his great art works, Durer also found time to publish two books, Four Books on Measurement and Four Books on Human Proportion. The first is a treatise on the proper construction and drawing of geometric forms such as helices and regular polygons. He treated matters of art in a very scientific and systematic way. In the second, he enumerated all body parts as fractions of the total height for many different archetypal forms of male and female bodies.

Thus we come to the end of Durer's life and works. I truly love Durer's art mostly due to his ability to extract such detail from his engravings, drawings, and paintings without having any of it muddled or confusing. He mastered the ability to show unbelievable subtlety in line and form while conveying a drawing with such force of meaning and visual impact. He made drawings that indeed one can "look at for a long time." In fact, art scholars still debate the meanings and themes of many of his works. However, no one debates the massive impact and great gift of Albrecht Durer.

References:

Bartrum, Giulia. Dürer. Eds. British Museum. and Albrecht Dürer. London : British Museum, 2007Web.

Dürer and His Culture. Eds. edited by Dagmar Eichberger and Charles Zika., Dagmar Eichberger, and Charles Zika. Cambridge, U.K. ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 1998Web.

Moser, Peter. Albrecht Dürer : His Life, His World and His Art. Ed. Albrecht Dürer. Bamberg : Babenberg, 2005Web.

Wolf, Norbert, 1949-. Albrecht Dürer, 1471-1528 : The Genius of the German Renaissance. Ed. Albrecht Dürer. Köln ; London : Taschen, c2006Web.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albrecht_D%C3%BCrer

Edgar Degas

Edgar Degas, a French artist famous for his painting, drawings, printmaking, and sculpture, was born in 1834 and died during world war I in 1917. He was considered an impressionist but preferred to refer to himself as a realist. He was very independent and courageous, which many believe was inherited from his adventurous grandfathers. His father, Auguste de Gas, a banker, intended on him to receive a good education at the Lycée Louis-le-Grand and to study law to become head of family bank. Despite his wish to paint, he attended law school but never went to classes.

After graduating from Lycée in 1853 with a baccalauréat in literature, he registered in departments of prints at Bibliothéque and drawing in the Musée de Louvre. In 1855, he met an artist named Ingres, whom he admitted to that he wanted to become an artist. Ingres replied “Draw lines… a lot of lines, whether they are from memory or from nature”. Degas took this advice to heart, and it is prevalent in his style.

In his early career, Degas did most of his work at home, using his younger brothers and sisters as his models. Degas’s works of his family were “affectionate and assured”, and varied drastically from his simple and monochromatic sketches of landscapes and buildings. This is prevalent in the numerous sketches and drawings of his youngest brother, René, whom Degas was most fond of. This profile sketch of René, René de Gas, was done with chalk in 1855. This picture almost “comes to life” with the way Degas uses line to curve the back of his head and uses value to add weight to his locks over his forehead. The accented nostrils, mouth, and through also give this simple sketch a life like appearance. In this sketch, Degas is probably mimicking Hans Holbein the Younger’s The Artist’s Family in the position of René’s head (profile angle looking upward). Degas is probably trying to depict a longing expression in his brother that is evident in Hans Holbein’s work.

Around 1869, Degas began to venture to the outdoors more frequently to work, and formed an odd fascination with horses. He enjoyed going to Longchamp races in Paris with Manet and other friends. Degas did numerous works of jockeys between 1866 and 1868, one of the most famous being Four Studies of a Jcokey.



This mixed media drawing is of one jockey from four different angles as he prepares to ride. One of the most noticeable aspects of this work is how Degas positioned the four images on the page. He binds together the four views of the jockey onto on page beautifully. The rider is in slightly awkward positions in the four poses of the work, but Degas does a fine job expressing these poses with simple line, and the horse is only composed of a few black lines. Also to note in this work is Degas’ unique choice of media and materials. The black gouache and blue and white oils stand out wonderfully on the brown, oil-stained paper.

In the 1890’s, Degas began to concentrate upon the nude. He writes to a friend: “I am hoping to do a suite of lithographs, a first serious of nude women at their toilet.”
In the last decades of his career, he worked on a series of lithographic nudes and figures of maidservants, varying them drastically. Many of his works were of models posing uncomfortably in his studio. In his last works, Degas appeared to be torn between the “artificiality of his own creation and reality”.

This uncertainty is evident in his work, Woman Drying Her Neck. In this pastel drawing, Degas emphasized her arched spine with line, curving it more to one side. He uses her back as a main point of departure because of its “clarity and energy”. He gives the body a “greater physical force” by making the neck and head more prominent. Also to note are the rich hues he used in the work, especially noticing the luxurious red color he uses for her hair, giving it depth and weight.





Boggs, Jean Sutherland. Degas. The Art Institute of Chicago 1996.

Growe, Bernd. Degas. Taschen Germany 2001. .