The Tub 1886

Editor: So, this is Degas' "The Tub" from 1886, done in pastel. The composition is really interesting, kind of an unusual angle, focusing on a woman bathing. What do you make of it? Curator: I see a fascinating exploration of labor and the female form within a very specific social context. Think about the materials themselves, pastel, often seen as less "serious" than oil. What does it mean to choose this medium to depict a scene of intimate domestic labor? Editor: That’s a great point! It's interesting how the 'everyday' act is elevated. The pastels seem almost like they’re built up like layers of skin or soap… Curator: Exactly! And consider the commodification of female labor during this period. Is Degas romanticizing or critiquing the role of women within the domestic sphere by presenting the making-of an everyday practice, such as taking a bath? Is it about the woman or the consumption of art itself? How does it feed back to the labour needed to create it, to maintain the standards it portrays? Editor: I never thought about it in terms of labor, but the woman is clearly *working*, cleaning herself, the material is an important consideration to depict this moment in time. I wonder, would this have been received differently if he'd painted it in oil? Curator: Undoubtedly. Oil paint had an institutional approval, whereas pastel operated differently within the system of making-art-and-showing-art. The very *stuff* of art changes its reception. What does that say about how we value certain types of labour, or forms of material practice? Editor: It's almost like the medium mirrors the intimacy and the inherent labour the bather is undergoing in that precise moment, and also a mirror for the work required from Degas, almost merging it within his labour… it is fascinating. I'll definitely be looking at Impressionism with fresh eyes from now on. Curator: Indeed. It’s through these considerations of material and social context that we can really begin to unpack the complexities of art like Degas’s "The Tub".