The Tub

The Tub (Woman Bathing in a Shallow Tub) is an 1886 pastel drawing on heavy wove paper by the French artist Edgar Degas. The work depicts a nude woman crouched in a shallow tub, illuminated by early morning light as she bathes. It is one of seven pastels Degas created in the mid-1880s showing women bathing or drying themselves in private interiors. He exhibited The Tub alongside the related nudes at the Eighth Impressionist Exhibition in 1886, where the group was regarded as one of the highlights of the show.

The composition is marked by the angled edge of a cupboard or dressing table, whose objects interrupt the rounded form of the bather and heighten the impression of an incidental glimpse. Critics responded in varied ways, though reception leaned largely positive: many praised the pastel's realism, beauty, and technical refinement, and several drew classical comparisons, while a few critics expressed discomfort with Degas's unconventional treatment of the nude. In 1908, the pastel was donated to the Louvre, where it was first displayed in 1914. With the founding of the Musée d'Orsay, the work was transferred to that museum, where it is housed today.