Edgar Degas

Woman with a Towel, 1898. Edgar Degas. Pastel on cream-colored wove paper with red and blue fibers throughout. H. O. Havemeyer Collection, Bequest of Mrs. H. O. Havemeyer, 1929.
Degas used his fingers, brushes, and sharp implements to smudge, scrape, and polish this pastel, creating a sense of movement and texture, and revealing layers of brilliant color. Black outlines drawn over the pastel emphasize the contrapposto turn of the muscular and monumental nude. The date Degas inscribed on the sheet has traditionally been read as 1894 but 1898 is more likely.