Pastel and print on paper
Tate Collection
Works with images
General Collection
C Frank Stoop
Collection
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/edgar-degas-988" aria-label="More by Edgar Degas" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Edgar Degas</a>
BedTime
Presented by C. Frank Stoop 1933
actions: postures and motions
adults
bed
bedroom
domestic
female
furnishings
interiors
nudes
objects
people
sitting
woman
<p>Like a number of Degas' smaller pastels, this picture began life as a monotype, printed directly onto paper from a drawing by the artist. The silvery grey marks of the monotype can be seen clearly in the curtain and the pillow. Following the composition and tonal structure established by the monotype, Degas worked on the image with pastels, often submerging the original print under several layers of colour. The scene might be thought part of the standard repertoire of eroticism, were it not for the fact that the figure is wearing a rather domestic-looking night cap.</p><p><em>Gallery label, August 2004</em></p>
paper unique pastel print
6 October 2005 – 14 May 2006
2006-05-14
6 October 2005 – 15 January 2006
2006-01-15
2005-10-06
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
18 February 2006 – 14 May 2006
2006-05-14
2006-02-18
Phillips Collection (Washington, USA)
2005-10-06
Degas, Sickert and Toulouse-Lautrec: London and Paris 1870-1910
Exhibition
5 November 2016 – 31 August 2025
2025-08-31
5 November 2016 – 5 February 2017
2017-02-05
2016-11-05
Art Gallery of New South Wales (Sydney, Australia)
http://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au
18 March 2017 – 16 July 2017
2017-07-16
2017-03-18
Auckland Art Gallery (Auckland, New Zealand)
11 August 2017 – 4 February 2018
2018-02-04
2017-08-11
Seoul Olympic Museum of Art (Seoul, South Korea)
24 March 2018 – 24 June 2018
2018-06-24
2018-03-24
Yokohama Museum of Art (Yokohama, Japan)
2016-11-05
Nude: art from the Tate collection
Tate partnerships & programmes
Bed-Time
support: 229 × 445 mm
Frame: 330 × 543 × 30 mm
Presented by <a href="/search?gid=999999963" data-gtm-name="tombstone_link_bequest" data-gtm-destination="list-page--search-results">C. Frank Stoop</a> 1933
<p>Like a number of Degas' smaller pastels, this picture began life as a <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/m/monotype" title="Glossary definition for 'Monotype'"><span>monotype</span></a>, printed directly onto <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/paper" title="Glossary definition for 'Paper'"><span>paper</span></a> from a <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/d/drawing" title="Glossary definition for 'Drawing'"><span>drawing</span></a> by the artist. The silvery grey marks of the monotype can be seen clearly in the curtain and the pillow. Following the <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/c/composition" title="Glossary definition for 'Composition'"><span>composition</span></a> and <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/t/tone" title="Glossary definition for 'Tone'"><span>tonal</span></a> structure established by the monotype, Degas worked on the image with pastels, often submerging the original <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/print" title="Glossary definition for 'Print'"><span>print</span></a> under several layers of colour. The scene might be thought part of the standard repertoire of eroticism, were it not for the fact that the figure is wearing a rather domestic-looking night cap.</p>
Display caption
2004-08-31T00:00:00
display-caption
DISPLAY_CAPTION
<p><b>Edgar Degas</b><span> 1834-1917 </span>
<br/></p>
<p><span><a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/degas-bed-time-n04712" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N04712</span></a> </span><b>Le Coucher</b><span> (Bed-Time) </span><i>c</i><span>.1883 </span>
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<p><span>Inscribed 'Degas' b.l.</span>
<br/><span>Pastel on monotype on paper, 9 x 17 1/2 (23 x 44.5)</span>
<br/><span>Bequeathed by C. Frank Stoop 1933</span>
<br/><i>Prov:</i><span>
Eugène Blot, Paris; Blot sale, Drouot, Paris, 9 and 10 May 1900, lot 188 (as 'Le Coucher'); bt. Cabrol, 1,805 frs.; C. Frank Stoop, London</span>
<br/><i>Exh:</i><span>
</span><i>Zolotoe Runo</i><span>, Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, April-May 1908 (21); </span><i>A Collection of Drawings by Deceased Masters</i><span>, Burlington Fine Arts Club, London, November 1917-March 1918 (19); </span><i>French Art 1200-1900</i><span>, RA, London, January-March 1932 (517)</span>
<br/><i>Lit:</i><span>
P.A. Lemoisne, </span><i>Degas et son Oeuvre</i><span> (Paris 1946), No.748, Vol.3, p.424, repr. p.425 as 'Femme Nue sur un Lit' </span><i>c</i><span>.1883; Eugenia Parry Janis, 'The Role of the Monotype in the Working Method of Degas' in </span><i>Burlington Magazine</i><span>, CIX, 1967, p.79; Eugenia Parry Janis in exh. catalogue </span><i>Degas Monotypes</i><span>, Fogg Art Museum, Boston, April-June 1968, No.134, p.XXIII and repr.; Franco Russoli and Fiorella Minervino, </span><i>L'Opera Completa di Degas</i><span>
(Milan 1970), No.878, p.126 repr.</span>
<br/><i>Repr:</i><span>
</span><i>Zolotoe Runo</i><span>, Nos.7-9, 1908, p.57; Michael Ayrton, </span><i>Degas (Second Volume)</i><span> (London 1953), pl.1 in colour </span>
<br/></p>
<p><span>This <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/pastel" title="Glossary definition for 'Pastel'"><span>pastel</span></a> was done over a second pull of one of Degas' monotypes; the first pull is reproduced in </span><i>Les Arts</i><span>, No.171, 1918, p.11 and in Janis, 1968 (No.133). The original <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/m/monotype" title="Glossary definition for 'Monotype'"><span>monotype</span></a> is one of those made in the 'dark field manner', that is to say by covering the plate entirely with <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/i/ink" title="Glossary definition for 'Ink'"><span>ink</span></a> and wiping some of it away to make a design. </span>
<br/></p>
<p><span>Eugenia Parry Janis has discovered that no less than 81 out of Degas' approximately 450 monotypes served as the basis for pastels. She writes of the series of nudes: 'Beginning in the early 1880's, Degas, following his usual monotype-making procedure (that of working in batches), began a series of nudes in the dark field manner, seen </span><i>contre jour</i><span> at various stages of the toilette. In most cases two impressions were pulled from each plate. The most brilliant ones were filed away in portfolios. The second, paler impressions became bases for pastels ... Thus a double series emerged, a night-time series of dark field first impressions, and a day-time series of pastel-worked second pullings.' </span>
<br/></p>
<p><span>In this case - as is typical of the series - Degas has made a number of modifications throughout and has changed a night-time scene, lit from a single source like a candle, into a day-time one (thus almost obliterating a strong shadow on the wall to the right of the figure); and he has also modified the girl's pose, showing, for instance, both legs instead of only one. The monotype shows through faintly in a few places, especially in the region of the pillow, and one can also see traces of the original profile of the head. </span>
<br/></p>
<p><b>Published in:</b>
<br/><span>Ronald Alley, </span><i>Catalogue of the Tate Gallery's Collection of Modern Art other than Works by British Artists</i><span>, Tate Gallery and Sotheby Parke-Bernet, London 1981, pp.150-1, reproduced p.150</span>
<br/></p>
<p>
<br/></p>

Catalogue entry
2004-09-15T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
actions: postures and motions adults bed bedroom domestic female furnishings interiors nudes objects people sitting woman