Woman in a Bathtub

Taking an unusual approach to the traditional theme of the nude bather, and introducing color into his original wax sculpture (through tinted waxes, a lead ring for the tub’s rim, and plaster-soaked cloth puddled at the tub’s edge), Degas achieved a work of daring modernity. Much of The Tub’s impact, as well as its charm, derives from Degas’s clever way of making a full view possible only from directly overhead. Yet the arrangement of the bather’s arms and legs, combined with her self-absorption as she performs her ablutions, results in a carefree innocence that foils the most prurient gaze.