About This Artwork

Hilaire Germain Edgar Degas
French, 1834-1917

The Bathers, 1885/1895

Pastel and charcoal on tracing paper, pieced and mounted on cardboard
1,134 x 1,157 mm
Signed: "Degas"
Gift of Nathan Cummings, 1955.495

Exhibition, Publication and Ownership Histories

Exhibition History

Paris, Galerie Vollard, "Degas," 1936.

Washington, D.C., The National Gallery of Art, "Selections from the Nathan Cummings Collection," June 28-September 11, 1970, pp. 22-23, cat. 10 (ill.); traveled to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, July 1-September 7, 1971.

The Art Institute of Chicago, "Major Works From the Collection of Nathan Cummings," October 20-December 9, 1973, pp. 16-17, cat. 8 (ill.).

The Art Institute of Chicago, "Degas in The Art Institute of Chicago," July 19-September 23, 1984, pp. 188-191, cat. 91 (ill.), cat. by Richard R. Brettell and Suzanne Folds McCullagh.

London, England, The National Gallery, "Degas: Beyond Impressionism," May 22-August 26, 1996, pp. 85, 146, 276, 278-279 (ill.), and 304, cat. 88, cat. by Richard Kendall; traveled to The Art Institute of Chicago, September 28, 1996-January 5, 1997.

The Art Institute of Chicago, "The Broad Spectrum: Color on Paper, Past and Present," September 12–October 31, 1999, hors. cat.

The Art Institute of Chicago, May 15, 1997-March 27, 2000.

Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, "Degas and the Nude", October 9 2011 - February 5, 2012, pp. 66, 210 ,211, fig. 235, cat. by George T. M. Shackelford, Xavier Rey, et.al.

Publication History

P. A. Lemoisne, Degas et son Oeuvre 3 (Paris, 1946), no. 1079 (ill.).

Daniel Catton Rich, "Bathers by Edgar Degas," The Art Institute of Chicago Quarterly 49:4 (November 15, 1955), pp. 68-70 (ill.).

Paintings in The Art Institute of Chicago: A Catalogue of the Picture Collection (Chicago, 1961), p. 121.

John Maxon, The Art Institute of Chicago (New York, 1970), pp. 268 and 280 (ill.).

Fiorella Minervino and Franco Russoli, L’Opera completa di Degas (Milan, 1970), no. 1003 (ill.).

Sandra Grung, Supplement to Paintings in The Art Institute of Chicago: A Catalogue of the Picture Collection (Chicago, 1971), p. 122d.

Harold Joachim and Sandra Haller Olsen, French Drawings and Sketchbooks of the Nineteenth Century 2 (Chicago, 1979), p. 45, no. 2G8.

J. Patrice Marandel, The Art Institute of Chicago: Favorite Impressionist Paintings (New York, 1979), p. 38 (ill.).

Degas, exh. cat. (Paris, 1988), p. 556, fig. 312.

Jean Sutherland Boggs, Degas (Chicago, 1996), pp. 62-65, 104 (ill.), and 111, pl. 33.

"A great artist's advice: do not miss this Degas," The Independent (May 22, 1996), p. 10.

Diane Kelder, The Great Book of French Impressionism (New York, 1997).

Ownership History

Estate of the artist [stamp, Lugt 658, lower left in red]; sold, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, May 4-5, 1918, First Degas estate sale, lot 211 (ill), to Ambroise Vollard (1867-1939), Paris [Rich 1955]; Ambroise Vollard, until at least 1936 [Paris 1936]. Given by Nathan Cummings, Chicago, to the Art Institute, 1955.