Pastel on vellum paper, 48.2 x 61 cm.
The J. Paul Getty Museum, Malibu,
and the Norton Simon Museum, Pasadena.
Many of the women are described in terms strongly reminiscent of Degas’ images. Marie Kolb is ‘a pleasant, little ball of fat’, and Blanche Querette ‘a most lascivious dumpling, and every bit of her fleshy frame is deserving of worship’. Berthe Laetitia is ‘short, and her well-rounded form is developed to the utmost, all her bones being covered with firm layers of elastic flesh, and her breasts and buttocks being sights behold.’ Marie Martin is ‘a fine, dark, Spanish-looking, matronly woman, with semi-globes like a Dutch sailor’s wench, and a pair of hips and a monumental backside that would make a Turk go off like a bottle of ginger-beer on a hot day.’ Berthe Mallet is ‘the very woman for a man who likes to wallow in a mass of white flesh...’ Several of these prints, as well as many of the later pastel and oil Toilettes, show Degas’ fascination with large and fleshy buttocks. Here, too, he shared tastes with the compilers of The Pretty Women of Paris, who wax enthusiastic about the ‘enormous, fascinating buttocks’ of Ernestine Desclauzes.