To what degree, I wonder, may we be permitted to separate the magnificence of a man’s art from the repugnance of his beliefs?
As an artist, Degas was without equal. As a man he was simply insufferable: argumentative and insulting, with an extreme dislike for other people. He was an unabashed misogynist and anti-Semite. He had great distaste for even his fellow Impressionists!
Our dear friend
Renoir once said of him:
“What a creature he was, that Degas! All his friends had to leave him; I was one of the last to go, but even I couldn't stay till the end.”But his work… there is simply nothing like it. Dream-like brush-strokes coax out female form in intimate movement.
Fleeting moments capture life breathing beautifully.
Enter in and decide for yourself.
He was a master of many mediums indeed: oils, pastels, paints and pencils, sculpture and brushwork alike.
