The art piece that I chose to discuss is “Woman Drying Herself,” an impressionist painting by Edgar Degas. This was one of Edgar’s favorite subjects, depicting a female bather dying her hair. The art piece illustrates the painter’s prowess and the skills. He is keen on details and makes very noticeable illustrations of the human model on the artwork. The piece is found at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, at the Robert Lee Blaffer Memorial Collection.
The “Woman Drying Herself,” artwork, portrays heavy charcoal lines, which outline the woman with fainter lines making up her basin, and other figures in the background. The outlines in the image are exceptionally executed, where one can quickly identify what the composition entails and comprehend the painter’s motive. Through the human figure, the painter clearly emphasized on the women’s unconsciousness and habitual movements. The lines and articulation of the figure are accurate. The impressionism style can be easily identified by any viewer visiting the art piece at the museum.
An underdeveloped background entails a sizeable anthropomorphic object, which is probably either a towel or a servant. This background leaves a viewer guessing on what the artist intended to portray. Nevertheless, it does not deter a person from getting conversant with the happenings at the painting’s foreground. The background also consists of what appears to be a series of indistinct toiletries on the shelf used by the lady on the piece. The artwork is highly unconventional within the art historical context. It fits in a genre of the representation of traditional domination by classicized and eroticized depictions of unclothed females. Based on my observation, “Woman Drying Herself” is one of the best impressionist art pieces of all time.
