Though he is famed for his expressive drawings of dancers and gripping scenes of life in 19th-century Paris, Edgar Degas also completed a series of representations of nudes throughout his career. These works are the subject of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston's (MFA) new exhibition, "Degas and the Nude," which runs until Feb. 5.
This show is the first to examine this aspect of Degas' work in its entirety, and the diverse depictions of the human figure it assembles provide a unique and fascinating insight into the art of this Impressionist master.
A Parisian at work in his ever-changing city
Edgar Degas was born in 1834 in Paris, where he would spend most of his life. He demonstrated an interest in art at a young age, and he began his formal training by copying Italian paintings in the Musée du Louvre in Paris and working in the atelier of a contemporary French artist. During the 1850s, he traveled throughout Italy, where he studied the works of the Italian Renaissance. All of these experiences stressed close attention to the representation of the human form, which would have significant impact on his future work.
Once he returned to France, Degas became one of the most celebrated artists of the 19th century. He exhibited in both the academic Salon and the famed Impressionist exhibitions of the 1870s and 1880s with artists such as Claude Monet, Auguste Renoir and Camille Pissarro.
Degas worked in a time of great political and social upheaval in France. The government changed dramatically during his lifetime, as did French society. The period saw the rise of the bourgeoisie, which coincided with a financial boom and cultural flowering.
This era of the arts manifested itself in the city's grand ballets, elaborate operas and large art exhibitions. In this same epoch, however, less savory aspects of society — including brothels — were widely popular. Degas' works reflect both of these extremes.
From the Fenway to the banks of the Seine
This exhibition, which represents the culmination of many years of research and preparation, was co-organized by George T. M. Shackelford, chair of the Art of Europe and Arthur K. Solomon Curator of Modern Art at the MFA, and Xavier Rey, curator of paintings at the Muséed'Orsay in Paris.
"‘Degas and the Nude' will show you 50 years of the work of an artist who is very, very dear to my heart," Shackelford said. "I feel myself sort of steeped in him."
The show is comprised of 160 objects and brings together works of art from more than 50 different collections around the world. The Muséed'Orsay made the largest loan to the exhibition.
"Key to the success of this exhibition has been our partnership with the Muséed'Orsay, who lent more than 60 works," Malcolm Rogers, the Ann and Graham Gund director of the MFA, said. "‘Degas and the Nude' would not have been the great success that I believe it is without d'Orsay's truly exceptional commitment to the MFA and to the exhibition."
An academic introduction
The exhibition opens with an examination of Degas' early representations of the human figure, with examples of his work from the 1850s. He received classical instruction, which stressed drawing from live models as artists had done for centuries before.
"He's fundamentally a Parisian artist steeped in the traditions of French art from the 17th century to his present in the mid-1850s," Shackelford said. "[He was] very much aware of currents of art history, classically educated, a young man with an extraordinary sense of history."
This second room also explores Degas' early work, focusing on his monumental "Scene of War in the Middle Ages" (1865), which was shown at the Salon in Paris in 1865 and demonstrates Degas' continued experimentation with the human form. This room displays comparative works by other famed 19th-century artists — including Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres and EugèneDelacroix — whose works influenced Degas.
These first two sections do not include the colorful pastels visitors may expect to see — those come later in the show — but they provide a helpful introduction to Degas' more celebrated work.
"Quelscandale!"
The third room of the exhibition is comprised largely of representations of brothels. Depicting prostitutes awaiting clients in various poses and states of undress, the works are visceral and raw. They overtly display a less wholesome side of 19th-century society, but one that was of particular interest to Degas.
"The tiny works he made … in this room [were] kept private," Rey said.
According to Rey, many of these works were not seen until the sale of Degas' estate after his death in 1917. He explained that the works in this section were largely produced using the monotype process, which Degas mastered. As the gallery text explains, "In this method, a drawing is done in ink directly on a metal plate, which is then passed through a printing press with a sheet of paper. The drawing transfers to the paper, creating a single impression."
"What is wonderful in the technique is that Degas used it to renew the way things are seen in a work," Rey said.
If they decided to do so, artists could also make a second, lighter impression from the metal plate. These prints could then be retouched and enhanced with pastels, a technique Degas later employed to dramatic effect.
"The most famous pastel is the pastel of dancers called ‘The Star' (circa 1876) … We have [that] in the Muséed'Orsay, but not in this show, because the dancer is too dressed."
Impressionist triumphs
The works in the following space show a gradual development in Degas' representation of the nude. Here, in works that date to the mid-1880s, Degas begins to shift away from images of the brothel in favor of a more general depiction of the female figure. In this section, too, numerous works demonstrate the beginnings of Degas' experimentations with pastels on top of prints.
"It's emblematic of the modernity Degas introduced in the drawing of his contemporary world, and it's emblematic of the naturalistic period Degas had … and that develops with a play on techniques," Rey said.
One particularly notable work is the small "La Toilette" (1886). It depicts a woman gracefully inclined over a washbasin in front of a mirror. She wears a white undergarment from the waist down, and is surrounded by elegant accoutrements: rich fabrics, draperies and perfume bottles. These suggest a tony, bourgeois Parisian apartment — a modern environment in which Degas must have been interested.
The fifth room of the exhibition is perhaps its most dramatic. Displayed are a number of works Degas included in the last of the Impressionist exhibitions in Paris in 1886, including "The Tub" (1886) and "Woman Dressing Herself" (1886). According to Shackelford, this regrouping represents a historical landmark.
"Never before, since 1886, we believe, at least, have so many of these been shown simultaneously," Shakelford said. "These were all shown, and the critics were appalled by their … excess of realism, because they look too much like real people and the poses." Now, over a century later, these works are celebrated.
This room exhibits some the finest examples of the richly colored pastels for which Degas is now famed. They represent women at various stages of bathing in bright colors, expressive lines and astonishing intimacy. Today, they are crucial to the foundations of modern art.
The last rooms of the exhibition examine the nudes Degas created in the final decades of his career. These spaces display a number of drawings that chart Degas' ever-changing conception of the human form which are also paired with a series of sculptures Degas created.
"Drawing is the moral center of Degas' art. It's really the practice that most informs almost everything he does, including … the creation of sculpture, which is, in fact, a kind of three-dimensional drawing experiment," Shackelford said.
In the exhibition's final space, late Degas works are displayed with those by artists of subsequent generations. In the same way that the first spaces of the show draw comparisons and connections between Degas and artists who came before him, this last space is meant to illustrate Degas' impact on artists such as AugusteRodin, Henri Matisse and Paul Gauguin.
These pieces bring the stunning exhibition to a close and demonstrate the profound influence of the Impressionist master's seminal exploration of the human form. He impressed those of his own era, influenced artists in subsequent generations and continues to awe today.
Shackelford said the purpose of the comparisons were twofold. They mean "to show you how alike Degas is to himself, and how different he is from everybody else."
