Admiring Degas, Master of Pastel
The Tub, pastel by Degas, on view at MFA, Boston
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Viewing Degas and The Nude at the Museum of Fine Arts reminded me how much I love the medium of pastel. Though I have seen more worthy examples of his bathers, it was engaging to see his process of working in mixed media, layering pastel over monoprint.
It is validating to see a master experiment, to observe the process through his eyes, and to witness an unwieldy drawing corrected with a single expert stroke. But it is in Degas’ handling of pastel that one may delight in the delicious quality of buttery layers of pigment topped with calligraphic fluency.
I, for one am relieved that Degas never found his niche in history painting as the chronology states. What a pity it would have been to subordinate such soulful expression to dispassionate statement of fact. The world Degas reveals to us in his nudes may be somewhat harsh, but it is ever so lovingly caressed by the light and the hand of a master.
Degas And The Nude is on view through February 5, 2012 at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
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Melody Phaneuf is an award-winning Boston Artist, well known for her evocative still life, landscape, and portrait paintings. She has exhibited at The National Arts Club in New York City, Galerie Herouet in Paris, and with Art du Monde, in Japan. Her paintings are regularly on view at The Guild of Boston Artists in Boston, Ma; North Shore Arts in Gloucester, Ma; and Patricia Hutton Galleries in Doylestown, Pa.
Phaneuf maintains a studio at Fenway Studios in Boston, where she paints and holds workshops, continuing the Boston School lineage.
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