  
  About the Artwork
  
  
  Throughout his career Degas returned to the same figures and motifs again and again, constantly modifying and refining them. One of these was nude women engaged in daily activities like bathing, drying themselves, or brushing their hair. His figures are often depicted from an unusual vantage point and framed asymmetrically. Though they appear unposed, Degas collaborated closely with his models in the studio. Eventually, through continual repetition of a motif or position, he arrived at the point where he could render it from memory and experiment with the form in different configurations of space. This glimpse into the quiet world of a woman seated at her toilette is drawn in charcoal and supplemented with pastels. Degas considered drawing and pastel to be mediums equal in importance to painting, which set him apart from his contemporaries, and he considered works such as this to be completely finished. 
 
From Bulletin of the Detroit Institute of Arts 89 (2015)
  
  
  Title
  Seated Nude Woman Brushing Her Hair
  
  
  Artwork Date
  between 1885 and 1908
  
  Artist
  Edgar Degas
  
  
  
  Life Dates
  1834-1917
  
  
  
  
  Nationality
  
  
  
  Please note:
  Definitions for nationality may vary significantly, depending on chronology and world events.
  Some definitions include:
  Belonging to a people having a common origin based on a geography and/or descent and/or tradition and/or culture and/or religion and/or language, or sharing membership in a legally defined nation.
  
  
  
  French
  
  
  
  Culture
  
  
  
  Please note:
  Cultures may be defined by the language, customs, religious beliefs, social norms, and material traits of a group.
  
  
  
  
  ----------
  
  
  Medium
  Charcoal and pastel on blue laid paper
  
  
  Dimensions
  Sheet: 19 &Atilde;&#151; 24 1/4 inches (48.3 &Atilde;&#151; 61.6 cm)
  
  
  Classification
  Drawings
  
  
  Department
  Prints, Drawings &amp; Photographs
  
  
  Credit
  Gift of the Josephine F. Ford Estate
  
  
  
  Accession Number
  
  
  
  This unique number is assigned to an individual artwork as part of the cataloguing process at the time of entry into the permanent collection.
  Most frequently, accession numbers begin with the year in which the artwork entered the museum&acirc;&#128;&#153;s holdings.
  For example, 2008.3 refers to the year of acquisition and notes that it was the 3rd of that year. The DIA has a few additional systems&acirc;&#128;&#148;no longer assigned&acirc;&#128;&#148;that identify specific donors or museum patronage groups.
  
  
  
  2005.63
  
  
  Copyright
  Copyright Not Evaluated
  
  
  
