Paintings by Hilaire-Germain-Edgar Degas

The Tub (1886) is part of Impressionist Hilaire-Germain-Edgar Degas's series of women bathing and dressing, in which he pioneered a new approach to the nude. The academic formulation of the nude was based on beauty, and the figure was composed in a way that celebrated the regularity of proportion and the grace of movement. Degas preferred to portray the accidental gesture, as if the figure was caught unawares. Hilaire-Germain-Edgar Degas heightened this sense of voyeurism with a high point of view, looking down at the figure and into the tub.

Asymmetric compositions and acute lines of vision were other techniques that Degas used to engage the viewer, as seen in the Impressionist painting At the Milliner's on the following page.

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For more on Impressionist paintings, artists, and art history, see: