After the Bath III

Description

In After the Bath III, Degas gives an ordinary bodily movement the intensity of a close figure study. The nude bends downward toward the right, her head and long hair following the direction of the pose. Cloth appears below, while dense dark marks fill much of the upper and surrounding field. Light areas of the body emerge from that texture, keeping the movement legible without turning it into a formal display.

This lithograph dates from 1891–92 and combines transfer work with crayon. The Met’s impression represents the first of two states, preserving a particular stage in the design’s development. Degas’s printed bathers should therefore be read as works with their own material character, rather than as interchangeable versions of his pastel subjects. The texture of the marks gives this scene its rhythm, concentrating interest on the body’s position within a close and private space.