It has always been assumed that Edgar Degas worked in the wings and rehearsal rooms of the Paris Opera to produce his staggering pictures of its dancers. But, like the ballets themselves, it turns out that his behind-the-scenes masterpieces were a brilliant illusion. “All his scenes of the Opera are phantasmagoric,” said Henri Loyrette, former head of the Louvre and Musee d’Orsay in Paris. A huge new show at the Orsay put together by the French art historian reveals that Degas hardly ever sketched in the theatre, never mind backstage. While “the painter of dancers” haunted the opera and its ballet for nearly 40 years, drinking in all the glamour and the grime, the socially awkward introvert remained mostly in the shadows. It was from there that he observed dancers and their predatory “patrons” as well as the mothers who often pimped their daughter<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It has always been assumed that Edgar Degas worked in the wings and rehearsal rooms of the Paris Opera to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[97],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14415","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-publications"],"yoast_head":"\n