Two Nude Women, Arms Raised
circa 1898-1900
Edgar Degas sketched these two ghostly figures with arms reaching for the sky around the turn of the century, a time when his failing eyesight forced him to rely more on memory than direct observation. The loose, smudged lines give the women an ethereal quality, as if they are caught in a fleeting moment of stretching or perhaps drying off after a bath—a favorite subject of his later years. This piece captures his lifelong obsession with the female form, stripping away the detailed backgrounds of his famous ballet scenes to focus purely on the curve of the body and the gesture of the arms.
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