Degas became an expert on capturing the naturalness of the female nude form in his collection in the 1870s and 1880s. He was able to transcend the guidelines for the nude form that had previously existed and make his paintings and pastels into a new look at the way the nude was depicted. The Japanese art that ran throughout France in the 19th century had a big impact on Degas and helped him to break away from the French Academy and classical background. Degas suddenly saw nudes not as Greek statues or idealized paintings, but as Hokusai and others had caught them, awkward in a bathhouse or tub. He learns ideas and major concepts from the Japanese works. He emultes the awkwardness of many of the Japanese works only in so far as his women are in an awkward position to be portrayed in a painting in. As for their actual poses and movements, the women could not be less awkward. Degas was able to catch them candidly, in poses that were perfectly natural and would be expected of women in the tub. He had no hidden agenda. He simply wanted to show the women in a light in which they had not been shown before. Japanese art provided the inspiration for him to do so, but ultimately the works were distinctly Degas’ own.