Synopses & Reviews
Impressionist painter Edgar Degas' canvases, pastels, and sculptures are recognized around the world. Few people, however, are aware that late in his career Degas produced a series of mesmerizing photographs. This book accompanies the first exhibition to focus on these imaginative works; they were never displayed in public in the artist's lifetime.
Some 40 photographs are reproduced in exquisite tritone duotone plates. Most of these are portraits of family and friends taken in 1895. Carefully posed and lit and often requiring long exposures, they are utterly distinctive works that stretch the physical and expressive limits of the medium.
The photographs will be on view at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, beginning in October 1998. The exhibition travels to the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, in January 1999 and to the Bibliotheque Nationale de Paris in May.