Oeuvres sur Papier - Works on Paper - Jean-Luc Baroni & Marty de Cambiaire - 2022

Hilaire Germain Edgar de Gas, dit Edgar Degas
Paris 1834 – 1917
27
Femme se coiffant, la lettre
Fusain <strong>sur</strong> papier, contrecollé <strong>sur</strong> carton.
Signé degas en bas à gauche.
563 x 622 mm (22 3 /16 x 24 ½ in.)
Provenance
Luigi Chialiva, lui-même l’ayant reçu de l’artiste.
Si Degas est principalement associé aux représentations
de danseuses, il a également, dans les années
1880, abondamment représenté les femmes
dans leur intimité la plus suggestive, femmes à la
toilette, s’essuyant ou encore se coiffant. Celle-ci
rassemble sa lourde chevelure tandis qu’on lui tend
une lettre, élément anecdotique qui raccroche la
scène à la possibilité d’une histoire, ce qui est rare
pour Degas à cette époque. Ce dessin, impressionnant
par sa taille, la force de sa composition et la
beauté du geste de la femme est à mettre en rapport
avec un pastel de 1888 (n° 256 de la première vente
Degas 1 ), autrefois dans les collections Bernheim,
Adam-Dupré, etc. et exposé en 2012-2013 à la fondation
Beyeler de Bâle 2 (Fig. 1).
Le thème de la femme qui se coiffe, comme celui
de la femme à la toilette, de la danseuse au repos
ou de la repasseuse, est un prétexte pour l’artiste
à deux démarches d’une modernité totale : d’une
part rentrer dans une intimité parfois presque crue,
d’autre part explorer inlassablement des formes.
Le corps au travail, le corps au repos, les soins qui
lui sont prodigués sont autant d’occasions pour le
1. E. Degas, Femme se coiffant, la lettre, pastel, collection
privée.
Although Degas is mainly associated with depictions
of dancers, he also created many images of women
in their most suggestive intimacy during the 1880s,
women at their toilet, drying themselves or combing
their hair. This one is gathering her thick hair while
receiving a letter, an anecdotal element that links
the scene to the possibility of a story, which is rare
for Degas at that time. This drawing, impressive for
its size, the force of its composition and the beauty
of the woman’s gesture is related to a pastel of
1888 (n° 256 of the first Degas sale), 1 formerly in
the Bernheim, Adam-Dupré etc., collections and
exhibited in 2012-2013 at the Fondation Beyeler in
Basel 2 (Fig. 1).
The theme of the woman combing her hair, like
that of a woman at her toilet, a dancer resting or a
woman ironing, provided a pretext for Degas to use
either of two totally modern approaches: on the one
hand entering an intimacy that was at times almost
raw, on the other the relentless exploration of forms.
The body at work, the body at rest, the care given
to it, formed countless opportunities for this artist to
show the nude, in pleasing or at times unpleasing
ways. At the 1886 Impressionist exhibition, Degas
showed a “series of nudes of women bathing,
washing, drying, wiping, combing or having
their hair combed (Pastels)”. 3 For art critics, these
consisted of “astounding appearances of bellies,
knees and feet in unexpected foreshortening”
and of “thick and short thighs of the poor worker,
deformed by modern labour which had never been
seen previously”. 4 Utter modernistic in the choice
of subjects but also in the execution, the process
of studying, of repeating, and of reusing models
almost obsessively.
Here, the young woman is beautiful, and she is
not naked. She is wearing an indoor blouse and is
tidying her hair. This is a routine gesture, ordinary
and yet filled with an extreme sensuality. But for
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