After the Bath, Woman Drying Her Hair 1903

Edgar Degas created this pastel drawing of a woman drying her hair sometime in his lifetime. Immediately striking is the intimate moment captured, rendered with a vibrant, almost feverish intensity. The composition eschews traditional notions of beauty, focusing instead on the physicality of the body in motion. Degas employs bold strokes of color – fiery oranges, cool blues, and fleshy pinks – to model the figure. The rough texture of the pastel adds to the immediacy, as if we are witnessing a fleeting, private moment. Degas’s choice of perspective, slightly elevated and off-center, disrupts conventional viewpoints. This fragmented approach aligns with the broader artistic shifts of the late 19th century, challenging fixed meanings and embracing a more subjective, sensory experience of the world. Ultimately, the drawing destabilizes established categories of the female form. It invites us to reconsider how we perceive the body, not as a static ideal, but as a dynamic and ever-changing entity.