What Degas Saw

What Degas Saw

By Samantha Friedman
Works of art by Edgar Degas

Hardcover

Price: $19.95

  • Publication Date: May 17, 2016
  • Imprint: Museum of Modern Art, New York
  • Trim Size: 9 1⁄4 x 11 3⁄4
  • ISBN: 9781633450042
  • Page Count: 40
  • Illustrations: color and black-and-white illustrations
  • Rights: North America

What Degas Saw looks at the world through a beloved artist’s eyes and provides insight into his creative process. Walking through the streets of Paris with cape and cane, the French artist Edgar Degas observes the world around him, finding inspiration at every turn. From the blurry faces of passersby glimpsed through a bus window to the sun-dappled landscape seen from a moving train, from the hunched profiles of laundresses at work to light-bathed ballerinas on the opera house stage, the artist—with open eyes and a curious mind—collects impressions of the people and places he sees. Accompanies major MoMA exhibition, Edgar Degas: A Strange New Beauty, on view March 26 through July 24, 2016.

Praise

"Friedman's text, artful and elegant, is perfectly choreographed with the artwork and design. The author finds just the right words for Degas's impulse to 'try to describe the city's push and pull, its run and jump, its lean and stretch.' A work of art."
Shelf Awareness —
"An interesting view into the relationship between an artist and his daily life, and it will be useful as a preparation for a museum trip."
Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books —

About the author

Samantha Friedman is an assistant curator in the Department of Drawings and Prints at The Museum of Modern Art in New York. She is the author of Matisse’s Garden, among other books on modern art. She lives Brooklyn. 


Hilaire-Germain-Edgar Degas (1834–1917) was a painter, draftsman, printmaker, and sculptor celebrated for his scenes of modern life.