Degas. The old man mad about art - ACE333.4

Photograph of elderly Degas. Before the Start at the Horse Race (1885-1892), illustrating Degas’s desire to represent immediacy. Dancers at Rehearsal (1875-1877). Kendall in front of Dancers (c.1891) which is a totally different style – much less detail, the paint applied with fingers, with the colour assuming great importance. The Renaissance: Artemis and Actæon (1559) by Titian. Degas’s style changes under the influence of Titian, becoming freer with stronger colours. Various images of dancers including The Blue Dancers. Photograph of older Degas with two friends. Commentary talks about his rather right-wing views. Kendall on the myth of Degas as a hermit. He believes this reputation was deliberately created to protect his art and keep people away. Photographs of Degas in playful mood. Plan of his trip to Burgundy in 1890, to make some landscapes. Photographs of him in a pony trap. Views of the landscape. A landscape monotype; Kendall copying the technique, painting direct onto a copper plate, covering the image with damp paper, passing the two through a press, adding pastel colour to the resulting print. Degas image – another landscape, seen in close-up to show the technique; another. VO from Howard Hodgkin. Hodgkin talking about Degas caring about the nature of art, rather than about nature. Photograph of elderly Degas. Hodgkin refers to Hokusai’s self-definition as "the old man mad about drawing" and suggests Degas could be known as "the old man mad about art".