Art in the Making: Degas

Edgar Degas (1834 - 1917) was one of the most experimental artists of the 19th century. Throughout his long career he constantly found new ways to use oil paint, chalk, pastel, ‘essence’ (basically, raw pigment) and printmaking processes, often combining two or more media in the same work. Degas was under little financial pressure to sell his works, and often kept them in his studio for decades, undergoing repeated modification.

This exhibition is part of ‘Art in the Making’, the National Gallery’s innovative, ongoing series of exhibitions on artists’ techniques, and offers an in-depth examination of some ten works by Degas. These will be complemented by x-radiographs, infra-red reflectograms and pigment analyses, with loans of works from Britain and abroad. It will reveal to a general audience, which has long loved this artist, just how complex Degas’ working methods could be. Pressetext

Art in the Making: Edgar Degas
Sunley Room