Bather Sponging Her Knee

In the pictureA woman with her back to us perches on an unseen support, lifts one leg high to the left, and leans over to rub her knee with one hand. Her other arm stretches to the lower right, gripping a cloth like a towel. Her hair is colored reddish brown, the outlines of her back and arms are drawn boldly in charcoal, and gray wash spreads in the shadows. Blue pastel is applied in short strokes at only a few spots around the body. Below the body the two legs come down as if crossing, with a red 'Degas' at lower right and faint pencil numbers at upper left.

BackgroundIt is a study from around 1883–84, when Degas was working on his series of women bathing in the 1880s. It uses the same whitish laid paper as Bather Drying Herself from the same period, but gray wash is added to the materials, so the shadows between the charcoal lines lie more softly. Unlike that standing pose, this sheet shows a raised leg, so the body crosses the picture on a diagonal, and the blue is left only sparingly around the body. It measures 30.8×24.8cm. The red signature at lower right is thought to be a stamp applied at the sale of Degas's studio after his death, and it was acquired through the Rogers Fund in 1918.

Puzzle tipThe reddish-brown hair pieces are the reference point at upper left. From there, follow the charcoal line of the curved back down to join the hips and the raised knee, and set the short blue pieces around the body in place. The two legs at the bottom are thin and long and continue across several pieces. Fill the blank paper at upper right and lower left last, and confirm the lower right corner with the red signature piece. 24 or 48 pieces is about right.