273. Figure after Degas(Figur nach Degas) 3

273. Figure after Degas (Figur nach Degas) 3, 2026, Öl auf Leinwand, 15 × 20cm

Here is another transcription from Degas. When I was in the Spinnerei in Leipzig, living in Halle 14 there was no hot water. I would boil a kettle and wash with a bucket. It was terrible. Eventually I asked at the office if someone could look into organizing hot water to come out of the shower. It turns out that somebody just had to switch it on. It was producing hot water from the very next day. It was one of only many Kafkaesque experiences along the winding road of an art career.

So when I look at this ‘bathing woman’ I see, among other things, an inconvenient way of taking a bath/shower. Art criticism today would overlook this. I do not think the model actually was bathing, of course. One thing that did not seem right was the lump of hair which seems unaffected by gravity in the original. Is it perhaps pinned up to avoid getting wet? I am not sure. I have not had hair to my shoulders since I was a rebellious teenager. So, in my version I let the hair fall downward. I also spent too much time trying to understand her right shoulder, how it comes away from the ribs and so on. As a friend recently said to me, ‘you are suffering’ 😂 Doing a transcription from a Degas drawing is indeed hard. A Degas transcription really feels like the 35th chamber. Or if Bellini is the final giant to battle, then Degas is surely not far behind.