Painting Woman
Painting Woman
Edgar Degas: Painting Nude Females in Action
Edgar Degas a student of classical art in his early age was born in 1934 in France. He became a famous artist for his diverse artistic prowess. In addition to doing the painting work, he had continued experimenting with sculpture and printing making throughout his life. However his main area of occupation remained drawing and painting. Though regarded as one of the founder of impressionism along with the painters like Renoir and other, Degas preferred to be known as a realist painter of his time.
Unlike other impressionist painters of his time and the other artists with whom he worked, Edgar Degas preferred working indoors. He depended upon his memory and the female models that he called to appear in his studio. In case of landscapes, too, he had repeated the subjects very often, doing certain variation of colour scheme here or the positioning the subjects there.
In one of his paintings, ‘Woman in A Tub’, the master painter Degas has depicted the natural beauty of a bathing woman. The woman is shown in action of bathing. The nude female’s action of rubbing her neck is delicately shown. Her sitting in a tub is so nicely painted that we can see the shadow of her hand on bottom of the bathing tub. This shows how neatly and skilfully Degas painted.
Here in this painting Degas has demonstrated his skill to paint nude females. We can see how accurate he is in showing the falling of light and effects of shadows on the nude body.
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I write short stories and articles about the paintings.
I have a question on Pablo Picassos painting woman with book?
What are the ideas and/or emotions associated with this artwork?
Most have called Picasso a “Bohemian Casanova” meaning he was one of the profound womanizers of his time. He caroused in affairs both short and long-lived relationships with women throughout his time. These women highly influenced his artwork.
Jean-Paul Crespelle writes in his book “Picasso and his Women:”…Just as he kept old matchboxes or pencil stubs, so he kept his old mistresses ready in hand. Just in case…” (Crespelle 11).
However, with regards to this painting specifically, the woman posing for him was one of the women he associated himself with. The woman, revealing her bussom with a pensive look on her face tells the viewer that she is relaxed, pondering some odd thought. The empty reflection in the picture behind her lets us know that the person in the picture could be Picasso, watching her as a jealous lover.
You could formally draw conclusions from the bold lines, vivid colors, contouring lines, etc. further about the emotion expressed in the painting, but I would look into the subject of this painting, the woman (possibly Marie-Therese, both a lover and a model), and look into his life with the woman/women specifically to dig deeper.
Here’s a site to help: http://blogs.princeton.edu/wri152-3/f05/cargyros/picassos_womanizing_a_trajectory_of_his_women.html
Good luck!
Speed Painting Korean Woman BoA Kwon