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Degas's Woman Bathing in a Shallow Tub — Hand-Painted Oil Reproduction

Painted to order in Dafen Village, Shenzhen · Edgar Degas, 1885 · Public domain

Degas spent the 1880s drawing women at their toilette — washing, drying, bending over the tub — seen through a keyhole he never pretended to hide. In Woman Bathing in a Shallow Tub the figure kneels with her back to us, absorbed in the private ritual, framed by a tilted tabletop and casual still life. Nothing performs. That unposed quality is exactly why the picture still feels modern.

Hand-painted oil reproduction of Degas's Woman Bathing in a Shallow Tub with a kneeling figure by the copper tub
Public-domain scan of the original shown for reference. Your canvas is hand-painted to order and photographed for your approval before shipping.
Reference image: Woman Bathing in a Shallow Tub MET DT1047.jpg — Edgar Degas, via Wikimedia Commons, CC0. Your canvas is hand-painted to order.
PriceOn request

Every canvas is painted to order, so the quote follows your size, frame and destination rather than a fixed list. Tell us what you need on WhatsApp and we reply with an exact figure, usually within the hour. You deal directly with the studio that paints it — no reseller layer.

Popular canvas sizes

Every Degas's Woman Bathing in a Shallow Tub — Hand-Painted Oil Reproduction we paint is made to order, so you choose the canvas. These are the sizes our customers ask for most:

Size (inches)Size (cm)Best for
16 × 12 in40 × 30 cmA shelf, a small wall, a gallery group
20 × 16 in50 × 40 cmBedroom, hallway, above a console
24 × 20 in60 × 50 cmStudy, home office, above a desk
30 × 24 in76 × 61 cmDining room, bedroom feature wall
32 × 24 in81 × 61 cmLiving room, above a sideboard
40 × 30 in102 × 76 cmLiving room focal wall, above a sofa
48 × 36 in122 × 91 cmLarge living room, stairwell, loft
64 × 48 in163 × 122 cmVilla scale, lobby, hospitality wall

Custom sizes are welcome — if your wall needs something between these, or larger, say so and we will quote it. Framing and shipping are quoted separately. Duties and import taxes are the buyer's responsibility (DAP).

Tell us your size and frame — we reply with an exact quote, usually within the hour.

💬 Get a Woman Bathing in a Shallow Tub Quote on WhatsApp

Why this pastel wants to be painted in oil

The original is a pastel — dry chalk strokes, layered and hatched, over a printed monotype base. Pastel is luminous but fragile: it can never be varnished, never cleaned, and it crumbles if the paper flexes. Degas himself struggled to fix it.

Reproducing it in oil solves the practical problem while keeping the effect. Our painters build the skin tones from hatched strokes of rose, ochre and green-grey laid side by side — the same optical mixing Degas used — but in oil they sit on a stable, varnishable canvas. The copper tub, the striped skirt on the table, the white cloth: each is a small still-life problem, and each is where a cheap print loses the drawing entirely.

There is a test we encourage buyers to use on any "oil painting" they are offered: run a fingernail very gently across the surface. A hand-painted canvas feels like terrain. A print feels like glass.

The painting itself

It dates from about 1885 and is now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Degas exhibited a group of these bathers in the 1886 Impressionist exhibition and shocked the critics precisely because the women looked real — observed, not idealised. He said he wanted to feel he was looking through a keyhole.

The original is a vertical composition, roughly 83 × 60 cm, and that proportion is very practical: 40 × 50 cm in a powder room, 60 × 80 cm on a bathroom or bedroom wall. It is the single most requested subject for private bathing rooms and spa bathrooms, and it never reads as decorative in the wrong way.

How our painters reproduce it

Our studio is in Dafen Oil Painting Village, Shenzhen — the centre of hand-painted oil reproduction for more than thirty years. A Woman Bathing in a Shallow Tub here is not traced, projected or transferred. The painter works freehand from a high-resolution reference, in layers:

  1. Composition and ground. The canvas is toned and the main forms laid out in a thin underpainting, matching the original proportions to your chosen size.
  2. Colour build-up. The palette is mixed in oil, not acrylic — only oil gives the same depth, slow blending and the slightly translucent glow the original depends on.
  3. Impasto and surface passes. The signature strokes go on last, loaded with paint, following the direction of the original's brushwork. This is the slowest and most skilful stage.
  4. Drying and inspection. Layered oil needs days to set properly. We let it. Then the finished canvas is checked against the reference for colour, composition and stroke character.

Where it hangs best

A quiet, unposed bath — the most intimate view in the whole of Impressionism. Rooms our customers choose most often:

Framing

Choose gold to echo the original's warmth, matte black for a contemporary room, walnut for a traditional interior, or no frame at all as a gallery-wrap canvas ready to hang. Frames are quoted separately and packed with corner protection.

How ordering works

  1. Tell us the painting, size and frame. WhatsApp is fastest — include a wall photo if you want sizing advice.
  2. Get an exact quote. Usually within the hour, with the timeline confirmed in writing.
  3. 70% deposit starts the painting. Paid by bank transfer, PayPal, credit card or Wise.
  4. We send photographs of the finished painting. You review it before anything ships. If something clearly does not match your order notes, tell us and we adjust it.
  5. Pay the 30% balance, then we ship. Tracked worldwide courier, rolled in a rigid tube or crated if framed.
Honest labelling: this is a faithful hand-painted reproduction on canvas, not an original and not a museum-licensed copy. Edgar Degas died in 1917, so the paintings are in the public domain, so commissioning a hand-painted copy is legal worldwide. We never sell it as anything else, and we do not issue fake certificates of authenticity.

FAQ

Is this hand-painted or printed?

100% hand-painted in oil on artist canvas by a studio painter in Dafen. No printing, no transfer, no giclée. You can feel the brushwork on the surface.

How much does it cost?

Tell us the size and frame you have in mind and we will quote it exactly — the figure depends on canvas size, frame choice and shipping destination. Frame and shipping quoted separately.

Can I order a size that is not on the list?

Yes — any size. The painter works freehand on a blank canvas, so we can also crop the composition slightly to fit your wall proportions.

How do I approve it before shipping?

We send photographs of the finished painting. You approve first, then pay the 30% balance and we ship. If something clearly does not match your order notes, tell us and we adjust it before it leaves.

How long does it take?

Most take 2–4 weeks depending on size and the studio queue. Layered oil needs proper drying time. The timeline is confirmed in writing before any deposit.

Who pays import duty?

Shipping is worldwide and tracked, typically DHL or FedEx, quoted separately. Import duties and taxes in your country are the buyer's responsibility (DAP).

Ready to commission a real Woman Bathing in a Shallow Tub? Send the size and frame — quote back within the hour.

💬 Start My Woman Bathing in a Shallow Tub Order
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