Hilaire-Germain-Edgar Degas, Entrance of the Masked Dancers, c.1879

Williamstown, MA, Clark Art Institute, 1955.559

https://www.clarkart.edu/ArtPiece/Detail/Entrance-of-the-Masked-Dancers

How to describe Degas? Prickly and disarming; self important and genial; conceited but encouraging to others; conservative yet utterly radical. 

No, even his friends didn’t know how to describe him or deal with him. And yet the best of them kept faith with him until the end, despite much provocation. 

He’s the Impressionist who’s not really an Impressionist – and certainly didn’t like the term – despite being a contributor to most of their exhibitions. He was a master of many different media – many of which he invented himself. And above all, he was a genius. 

Yes – really, truly: a genius. 

Coping with failing eyesight from at least his 30s, Degas discovered ways to find the sublime in the interior. The circus, the opera, the café concert, the ballet, and its practice rooms. These were his landscapes, and we are the richer for that.

RJW F2530 Online (via Zoom)

A 5-hour short course, delivered via 2 x 2½-hour sessions on consecutive Saturdays (Saturday 1 & Saturday 8 November).

£40 (individual registration); £72 (for two people sharing one screen).