Even during his lifetime, Edgar Degas was a legend. Respected and admired by his fellow-artists – Pissarro called him “the greatest artist of the age” –, his depictions of dancers were among the most popular subjects of his time. To this day, he is connected above all as a painter and illustrator with subjects relating to this theme. However, apart from his graceful ballet scenes Degas also created a wide-ranging artistic oeuvre that combined tradition and modernism and reflected his interest in experimenting with unusual techniques.

Edgar Degas was one of the most influential and important artists of the 20th century. His works are characterised by the moment, the uniunintentional, the spontaneous: the moment before the dance performance or the horse race; fragmented details of pictures; and portraits with unusual perspectives. He rang in the modern age with his stylistic devices for dynamic presentation, pale coloured lightness and shimmering hatching. Knowledgeably and attractively, the latest volume of the Great Masters of Art series presents the wealth of Edgar Degas’s artistic creations across more than half a century: his sharp, analytical gaze at his surroundings, his enormous influence on the generations of artists who followed him, and not least his demanding personality, lacking in vanity yet at the same time aloof.