Edgar Degas
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No doubt Degas intended to include this work in the 1886 Impressionist exhibition among the nudes he described in the catalog as "women bathing, washing themselves, combing their hair or having it combed," because it is his only pastel of the mid-1880s of a woman having her hair combed. Executed in large format and meticulously finished, this nude—reminiscent of Rembrandt’s famous Bathsheba at Her Bath in the Louvre—may not have been completed in time for the exhibition, or else it may have been excluded deliberately for reasons unknown.
P.S. You can learn more about Degas and his love of pastels in our Mega Impressionist Course here.
P.P.S. Did you know that Degas painted his women from the photographs he took? Click here to see them!