The painting above is a response to impressionism as seen in the very deliberate abstraction which was more subtle in impressionist art in lieu of the hyperrealism of the eras prior. A growing trend as a result of increased cultural contact was an appreciation for Japanese art which contribute to the perspectives, flatness, geometric shapes prevalent in the art at this time. The artist used thin paint strokes, meant to make the piece transparent and the artist’s brush strokes more obvious speaking to the more purposeful abstraction of art in this time period. The painting depicts the dancers in rehearsal rather than in the actual performance itself which speaks to the importance of the artists experience making the art instead of the end product. The artist uses very blended neutral colors that optically enhance the motion in the piece. Degas wanted to create a social commentary on modern life, on moral, sexual, and this was important because at the time most people only saw showcases like this with the final product, both in the actual performance sense and in the artwork depiction sense. The painting is very much a social commentary on the objectification of women for the sake of male dominated society’s viewing pleasure.
While the first painting comments on the phallocentric nature of society and the way men looked at women, the second painting rejects the phallocentric perspective and shows a real and empowering scene of women. This image portrays a working class, bourgeois woman bathing a child. The realist view of the child or the woman, specifically; it is a mundane, everyday task but presented as delicate, sweet, intimate and special. Similar to the last piece there are she had Japanese influences which affected her artwork with cropped forms and bold patterns while bold outlines were meant to separate the figures from the patterns around them. The oriental influence extends into the flattened perspective and yet the artist still indicates depth by the downturned faces as they sort of recede into the space. A painting like this at the time would usually be found in more personal places like inside a home, but the artist intended this piece to be displayed as broadly as possible to draw attention to women and their vital role