Degas

I would like to be famous and unknown said Edgar Degas. His sublime paintings of ballet dancers, striking views of horseraces and intimate scenes of women bathing made him famous. Yet he remains unknown, for the fame of these pictures has obscured both the rest of his work - historical subjects, portraits, landscapes - and his private life. Here is Degas' sixty-year career - as a passionate supporter of the avant-garde, a champion of Impressionism, an insatiable experimenter.