Paintings Drawings Sculptures 2016 - Jean Luc Baroni

2. Degas, Sortie du bain, monotype.
but is studied from the side 3 and Degas made a further study,
of what could even be the same figure seen from above, in
pastel in a work dated to around 1880 from the collection
of Sydney Brown, now the Stiftung Langmatt, Baden (fig.1) 4 .
Jane Munro has meanwhile pointed out that a figure in the
earlier work in the Norton Simon Museum, Girls Beside the
Sea of circa 1869 prefigures this cross-legged, head thrown
back pose 5 . The experimental technique, with its strong
outlines and varied texture of paint, and indeed the type of
signature also recall the monotypes Degas experimented
with in the late 1870s, particularly the Sortie du bain (fig.2)
in which he again used his finger tips to produce the pale
grey tonality of the figure: ‘il a tapotée doucement du bout
des doigts afin de produire le gris pale de la baigneuse..’
according to the catalogue of the 1988 exhibition 6 .
This oil sketch was to have been included in the 5 th sale of
the Atelier Degas but after four extremely successful sales,
the 4 th and last being held in July 1919, it was decided not
to hold more and this work, along with the others listed for
the 5 th sale, was kept by the artist’s heirs. The red stamp on
the verso is the mark placed on all the works by the artist
found in the studio in December 1917 and inventoried
by Joseph Durand-Ruel and Ambroise Vollard. A second
mark, in red or black, with just the artist’s name: degas
was placed on all the works which were actually offered
at the atelier auctions.
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