Was Degas only interested in ballet dancers?
The ballet dancer was a recurring motif, certainly, but my interests were broader. I found fascination in the working class – the laundresses, the milliners – and their arduous tasks. Scenes from cafés and racecourses also held my attention. What united these subjects was their engagement with modern life and their physical actions. I was drawn to the dignity and the often-unseen labor that structured these environments, and I sought to depict them with unwavering scrutiny, not idealized sentiment.
Ask Edgar Degas the follow-up →