Edgar Degas - Woman at Her Toilette 1895-1900

Woman at Her Toilette 1895-1900
Woman at Her Toilette
1895-1900 53x69cm pastel/paper
Ordrupgaard Collection, Copenhagen, Denmark

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From Ordrupgaard Collection, Copenhagen:
Looking at Degas’ pictures of women at their toilette, the observer has a feeling of being admitted to a private world. But at the same time there is often a distance built into the picture because of the viewpoint and framing. In this picture we look into a woman’s intimate boudoir and at the same time are kept at a distance. The woman is seen from above, a chair blocks the path, and her face is unclear in the mirror on the wall. These are all effects that create a charged atmosphere of both presence and absence, and which point to the observer’s fundamentally voyeuristic position in relation to the picture. This is a theme to which Degas returns again and again in his pictures of women.