Positive/Negative: A Note on Degas's Photographs

Author(s): Douglas Crimp

Source: October, Vol. 5, Photography (Summer, 1978), pp. 89-100
Published by: The MIT Press
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 Positive/Negative:
A Note on Degas's Photographs*

DOUGLAS CRIMP

l'homme poursuit noir sur blanc

Mallarm6
In a passage froma journal kept in his youth,Daniel Halevy relatesthe
eventsof "a charming dinner party" given on December 29, 1895. Among the
guestswas Edgar Degas (a regularat the Halevy household until theirbreakover
the Dreyfusaffair)togetherwith various membersof the family,including Jules
Taschereau and his daughter Henriette,Madame Niaudet and her daughter
Mathilde.AfterdinnerDegas wentto get his camera,at which point, Halkvytells
us, "the pleasure partof theeveningwas over,"and "the dutypartof theevening
began," while everyonesubmittedto "Degas's fiercewill, his artist'sferocity."
During thisperiod in themid-'90sinvitingDegas to dinnermeant,it seems,"two
hours of militaryobedience." Here is Halkvy'sdescriptionof the posing session
thatevening:
He [Degas] seated Uncle Jules, Mathilde,and Henrietteon the little
sofa in frontof the piano. He went back and forthin frontof them
runningfromone side of the room to the otherwith an expressionof
infinitehappiness. He moved lamps, changed the reflectors, tried to
light the a
legs by putting lamp on the floor-to light Uncle Jules's
legs, thosefamouslegs, theslenderest,mostsupple legs in Paris which
Degas always mentionsecstatically.
"Taschereau," he said, "hold onto thatleg with yourrightarm,
and pull it in there,there.Then look at thatyoungpersonbeside you.
More affectionately-stillmore-come-come! You can smile so nicely
when you want to. And you, Mademoiselle Henriette,bend your
head-more-still more. Really bend it. Rest it on your neighbor's
shoulder." And when she didn'tfollowhis ordersto suit him he caught
herby thenape of theneck and posed her as he wished. He seizedhold
of Mathilde and turnedher face towardsher uncle. Then he stepped
back and exclaimed happily, "That does it."'
* This essay initiatesa considerationof Degas as a photographerwith the assumption thathe
was, ratherthan a talentedamateur,deeply engaged in making photographsas works of art. lhe
importantramifications of thisassumptionforboth thehistoryof photographyand a reevaluationof
Degas's late work will be discussed in my forthcomingdoctoralcdissertation.In thatproject,I shall
undertakealso a discussion of the complex technical problems posed by Degas's highly original
manipulations of the medium. In this essay I am interestedin raising some of the broaderaesthetic
questions suggested by Degas's photographic oeuvre. I wish to express my gratitudeto Abigail
Solomon and BernardGuillot fortheirhelp in securingstudyprintsof the photographs.
1. Daniel Halkvy,My FriendDegas, trans.Mina Curtis,Middletown,Conn., WesleyanUniversity
Press,pp. 82-3.

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90 OCTOBER

The remaining entries in the journal make no mention of the print of this
photograph,which is a disappointingomission,forone wonderswhat the sitters
would have thoughtof it. In theMetropolitanMuseum thereis a copy printof a
photograph showing all those thingsHalevy describes:the piano and the sofa;
Taschereau's famous knee, held up and floodedwith light; Henriette'shead
awkwardlyforceddown onto Mathilde's shoulder; and Mathilde still willfully
resistinglooking at her uncle. But intrudingupon thisfamilial scene,in a way
that makes those forcedposes ratherdifficultto unravel,is anothershot,shifted
ninetydegrees offaxis from the first.
This timeit is Mathilde'shead thatis forced,
wedged into the space between Taschereau's shoulder and her own, "other"
shoulder.Mathildehas been doubled, splitinto profileand frontalviews,vertical
and horizontalpositions.She has been forcedthistimenot by Degas's manipula-
tiveorders,butbyphotography'sown manipulativepossibilities.Her secondhead

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The MetropolitanMuseum ofArt,GiftofMrs. Henry
T. Curtiss,1965.)

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A Note on Degas's Photographs 91

is sandwichedtherein thatimpossible space, thatimpossibleposition,byanother

kind of pressure,the kind in which two photographicnegativesare sandwiched
togetherand printedat the same time.2
This peculiar means of printingforcesupon us a double a constant
reading,
shiftingof axes; yetin thisoscillationbetweentheone shotand theother,between
vertical and horizontal, no resolution is possible. The two shots have been
conflatedinto a single image thatdivides itselfnot into two separatescenes,but
only into that otherkind of split thatconstituteswhateverlegibilitythe photo-
graph may be said to have: the split betweenlightand dark. We usually thinkof
this condition of the photograph,of its breakdowninto light and dark (or the
gradationof values fromwhite to black), as a ratherstraightforward matter.What
is light in the world is registeredas light on thephotographicprint;the lightof
the world establishesphotographiclegibility;the photographis, literally,"light
writing." But this is, of course, a gross oversimplification. For the process of
photography is itselfa double operation. Before the light the world can be
of
registered on the print, it first
must undergo a reversalat the interveningstageof
thenegative.At thispoint, however,thebreakdownis not strictly one of lightand
dark. It is, rather,one of opacity and transparency.Thus at the stage of the
negative; light and dark are not only reversed,they are radically converted.
Anythingthatreflects lightin theworld registersitselfas opacityon thenegative,
therebybeing given the power to obscure, to block out what is dark; while the
absence of light---darkness, shadow, obscurity-registersitselfas transparency. It
is only in thisway thatthephotographcan be writing.For as lightpasses through
the transparentnegative,it inscribesblack onto white.
Degas's photograph,itselfdoubled, may be said to reflect upon thisdouble
operation,to implicatethenegativein theprint.That famousTaschereau knee,so
brightlylit in the pose that Halkvy describes,is therein all its pristineclarity,
masking out Mme Niaudet's black dress. But at that point where Taschereau's
shoulderand Mme Niaudet's faceboth fallpartiallyinto shadow,neitherresolved
into black or white,the two appear simultaneously.Like phantoms theyemerge
into visibilitythrougheach other.It is no longerpossible, then,to speak of that
scene thatoccasioned this(these)photograph(s);caughtin thecomplex web of the
photographic medium, it has been transformedinto a hallucinatory,spectral
image.

The eighthand finalImpressionistgroup show was held in 1886,the same

year that Jean Moreas published his manifestoof literarySymbolismin Figaro
Litteraire. The coincidence of these two events-the one representinga last
attemptto assemble the mastersof a pictorial style rooted in the preceptsof
2. There are two other copy printsof such superimposedphotographsin the collection of the
MetropolitanMuseum, New York.

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92 OCTOBER

Naturalism; the other announcing a movement deeply hostile to that

Naturalism-is charged with irony. For it was in this veryexhibition that the
young Symbolistpoets and criticsfound the kind of art with which theywould
claim an affinity.The bitterfactionalismwithinthe Impressionistcirclethathad
led to Degas's exclusion fromthepreviousgroup show in 1882,had onlyworsened
by 1886,with theresultthatthemostorthodoxImpressionists,Monetand Renoir,
withdrewcompletely,while in theirplace were Gauguin, Redon, and Seurat.
Apart fromthe worksby this youngergroup, it was thesuiteof pastel bathersby
Degas that was singled out by the Symbolist writersfor praise. Teodor de
Wyzewa,apt to link any artisticmanifestationof which he approved to Wagner,
included Degas in his category of "Wagnerian painting." Both Joris-Karel
Huysmans (whose volte-facefromNaturalismhad occurredtwo yearsearlierwith
the publication of A Rebours) and F61ix Feneon describedDegas's works in a
dazzling prose style,repletewithneologismsand archaismsclearlyindebtedto the
language of Symbolism'scentralfigure,Stephane Mallarm&.Feneon's description
of one of thesebatherswith "the hair fallingdown overthe shoulders,thebreasts
over thehips, thebellyover the thighs,thelimbs over theirjoints. . ." 3 is typical
of the way in which Feneon's language creates its own momentum,in this
instance metonymic:the initial "hair falling" institutesa chain of body parts
falling over one another that defiesnatural possibility. He thus attemptsto
parallel the way Degas deformshis subjectsby followingthe internallogic of his
pastel medium,oftenapplied overblack and whitemonotypes.Thus, at thisearly
momentof Symbolism,Degas's art was annexed to the movement.
Degas was to show his work publicly only once more, this time in an
exhibition arrangedby his dealer Durand-Ruel in 1892,and the works thathe
exhibitedcould only have reinforcedhis connectionswith Symbolism.In 1890,
Degas and his friend,the sculptorPaul Bartholome,made an expeditionthrough
Burgundyin a tilbury.Upon arrivingin Dienay at thecountryhome ofhis friend
Georges Jeanniot, Degas began working on a sqries of landscape monotypes
inspiredby the memoriesof his journey. Twenty-twolandscapes, some of them
using these monotypesas bases, made up the Durand-Ruel showing, and it is
instructiveto considertheseworksin relationto thedecliningrole of Impression-
ism in Degas's art. Landscape is, of course, the essential genreof Impressionist
painting,carryingwith it the condition of workingen plein air, thereto observe
and faithfullyrecordthe transitory effectsof light in nature.Degas, however,was
only rarelyattractedto thegenreand was openly contemptuousof plein-airisme,
comparingit, in one of his famous mots,to the sportof fishing.But in the 1890s,
as Monet at Givernyand Ckzanne at Aix were passionatelyrededicatingthem-
selvesto theirprojectscarriedout in frontof theircherishednaturalmotifs,Degas
too turnedto this genre. Yet he appropriatedthe landscape forentirelydifferent
ends. Far froman art of patient and minute observation,Degas's is an art of
3. Felix Feneon, "Les Impressionnistesen 1886," CEuvres,Paris, 1948. Quoted in Sven Loev-
gren,The Genesis of Modernism,Bloomington,Indiana UniversityPress, 1971,p. 59.

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A Note on Degas's Photographs 93

evocation, of allusion. And these emergenot fromthe appearance of an actual

landscape, but ratherfrom the conditions of the peculiar medium Degas was
using.4 These monotypesare constitutedas a seriesof traces,of wipes, smears,
smudges,blottings.Their texturesare thoseof rags,brushes,fingerprints, and of
the oil itselfas it flowsunder the pressureof the printingpress. They depict
landscapes only insofaras theirmodulatedzones of color and juxtaposed textures
mightsuggestmountains,plains, trees,roads,skies.They are landscapes in which
Degas supplanted the visible world with the visionary,but not without first
touchingground in the materialfromwhich theywere generated.
It was only a few yearsafterthe creationof these last monotypesand the
exhibition at Durand-Ruel's that Degas turnedhis attentionto photography.
That he should have done so at a time when his art was conceived in termsso
compatible with Symbolism is rather perplexing, for if the Symbolistsheld
Degas's art in high esteem,theydespised photography.To them,photography
representedeverythingthat was deplorable about the positivistview of reality
against which they staged their revolt. "As impersonal and banal as photo-
graphs," was the epithet G.-AlbertAurierused for "those numerous abomina-
tions" painted in the name of realism.5If, as Moreas claimed in his Symbolist
manifesto,"the essentialaim of our artis to objectifythesubjective(theexternali-
zation of the Idea) insteadof subjectifyingtheobjective(natureseen throughthe
eyes of a temperament)," 6 how could photographybe made compatiblewith that
aim? How could photography,seeminglyconstructedupon theveryprincipleof
Zola's aphorism-"art is nature seen through a temperament"-partakeof the
mystery, the artificeso essential to the Symbolists?
This argumentabout photographywould have been perfectlyfamiliarto
Degas. For him, too, artwas a question not ofnaturebut ofconvention:"Art,"he
insisted,"is falsehood";while in 1872,he had writtenin a letterfromNew Orleans
"photographyis instantaneousness,nothing more."7 And according to his niece
Jeanne Fevre, "My uncle realized perfectlywell the inferiorityof this art.
Photographyis only a mechanical eye. Its majoi defectis that it neithermakes
4. The monotypeis a technique of printmakingin which theplate is not etched.It therefore can
generateonly a unique, or at the most, two prints.Degas, who began making monotypesin 1874,is
one of thefewartiststo have made extensiveuse of themedium. His obsession with takingmore than
one impression-evidenced not only by the factthathe usually took a second pull to be reworkedin
pastel,but also by his reconstituting
platesand pulling counterproofs-isparadoxical consideringthe
nature of the medium. His use of colored oil for his landscapes, the latest of his monotypes,is
exceptional,mostof his work in the medium being black and white.See Eugenia ParryJanis,Degas
Monotypes,Greenwich,Conn., New York Graphic Society, 1968; and JeanAdhemarand Franoise
Cachin, Degas: The Complete Etchings,Lithographs and Monotypes,New York,The Viking Press,
1975.
5. G.-AlbertAurier,"Le Symbolismeen peinture:Paul Gauguin," Mercurede France, II (1891),
159-64. Quoted in Herschel B. Chipp, Theories of Modern Art,Berkeley,Univeristyof California
Press,p. 89.
6. Jean Moreas, "Le Symbolism,"Figaro Litteraire,September18, 1886.Quoted in JohnRewald,
Post-Impressionism,New York, The Museum of Modern Art,1956,p. 148.
7. Edgar Degas, Letters,ed. Marcel Guerin,trans.MargueriteKay,Bruno Cassierer,Oxford,1947,
p. 22.

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 in.

........

Edgar Degas. Renoirand Mallarmnin

BertheMorisot'sSalon. 1895. (Copy print
collectionThe MetropolitanMuseum of
Art,Giftof Mrs. Henry T. Curtiss,1965.)

distinctionsnor comprehends.It has neitherthe capacity to constructmeaning

nor style." But she adds, "Degas, as a photographer,enabled it to comprehend;
surpassingall previousphotographers,he made photographyintelligent."8

There is anotherphotographby Degas forwhich we have a description,this

one by Valery:
It shows Mallarme leaning against the wall, close by a mirror,with
Renoir sittingopposite on a divan. In the mirroryou can just make
out, like phantoms,Degas and the camera,Mme and Mlle Mallarme.
This masterpieceofitskindinvolvedtheuse ofnine oil lamps. . . and a
fearfulquarter-hourof immobilityfor the subjects. It has the finest
likenessof Mallarme I have everseen.9
If that photograph of the Halevy relativesis doubled along its verticaland
horizontalcoordinatesat thestageof thenegative,thisone is doubled in itsdepth
at thestageof theshot,revealingphantomsof anotherkind. While thosenine oil
lamps have inscribedthefeaturesof Mallarme (and Renoir) on thisprintas a fine
8. JeanneFevre,Mon Oncle Degas, Geneva, PierreCailler, 1949,pp. 139-40.
9. Paul Val'ry, Degas Manet Morrisot,trans.David Paul, Bollingen Series XLV, vol. 12, New
York, Pantheon Books, 1960,p. 40.

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A Note on Degas's Photographs 95

likeness,theyhave at the same time effacedthe featuresof Mallarme's wifeand

daughter and especially those of Degas. Justat the point where we should see
Degas's face as it delights in making this photograph, thereis an elision, an
absence. What we do see in thatmirroris a camera,and behind thecameraanother
mirror,which in turnreflects thefirst
mirror,which.... Suspended in thespecular
infinitudethat is this photograph,its author is reduced to a specter.Degas has
included himselfin his photographonly to disappear, in a way thatcannot but
remindus of Mallarme's own self-effacement in the creationof his poetry:
The poet disappears (this is without doubt the great discoveryin
modernpoetry)and theverseitselfprojectsitsown passions throughits
leaps and bounds; its ecstacylives alone throughits own rhythms;and
so verseis born, ratherthan being imposed or brutallythrustupon us
by the writer.'0
The disappearance of which Mallarme speaks and which Degas effectsin his
photograph is one in which the medium itself-its autonomous being-
overwhelmsboth its ostensible subject and its author in order to achieve that
supremefictionthatwas Mallarme's goal. Thus we mightadd to Valery'sopinion
that,quite apart fromcontaining "the finestlikeness of Mallarme,"-this is a
"Mallarmean" photograph.
Perhaps in part as a means of explaining thatsilencingof theauthor'svoice
in favorof thewords themselves,Mallarme employedhis analogy withthedance,
"thatcatalystand paradise ofall spirituality."As his famousaxiom formulatedin
the textBallets has it, the dancer is entirelyeffacedby the dance, in which she
becomespure sign: "The ballerina is not a girl dancing" for"she is not a girl,but
rather a metaphor .. . and she does not dance, but rather.. . she suggests
things.""1 When Mallarme was preparing an illustratededition of his prose
poems in 1888, he turnedto Degas for a drawing. Unfortunately,Degas never
produced that drawing,yet the great painterof the ballet seems neverthelessto
have taken Mallarme's essays on the dance to heart.A few years later,when he
began to devotehimselfto photography,he not surprisinglymade a numberof
picturesof ballerinas. His several studio shots of dancers show them in poses
familiar from the late pastels, stretchingand adjusting the straps of their
costumes.Nothingelse about theseextraordinary photographs,however,could be
describedas familiar.The only vocabularywithwhich we mightapproach them
would again be called Mallarmean.
One of themshows a dancerwhose straphas fallenoffhershoulderto reveal,
in an eroticdetail unusual forDegas, a partiallynaked breast.Her pose is perfectly
describedby the lines of a sonnetwrittenby Degas under Mallarme's tutelagein
the '80s:
10. Stephane Mallarme, letterto Emile Verhaeren,January22, 1888, in Selected Prose Poems,
Essays,and Letters,trans.BranfordCook, Baltimore,The JohnsHopkins Press,1956,p. 101.There is
a photographof Verhaerenby Degas in the collection of the Eastman House, Rochester,New York.
11. Stephane Mallarme, "Ballets," ibid., p. 62.
pp. 96-7:
Edgar Degas. Posed Ballerina. Two versions,c. 1895.
(Bibliotheque nationale, Paris.)

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98 OCTOBER

Ton bras mince,place dans la ligne suivie,

Equilibre, balance et ton vol, et ton poids.12

That pose suggests,as well, the opening passage of Ballets: "In an effortless rise
and fall, this creaturenow in flight,now drowsedin veils,is summonedinto the
air and seems to hang there,purelyItalian in the softstretchingof her body."'~
Indeed, she does seem to hang there,forthough she appears to be en pointe,her
legs have vanished,veiled by theblurof thelowerportionof thephotograph.And
she is suspended not only betweenrise and fall,but also betweenappearance and
disappearance,betweennegativeand positive.
The several differentprints of this photograph in the collection of the
Bibliotheque nationale, Paris, demonstrateDegas's highlyoriginal experimenta-
tion with his negatives,elaboratingand extendingthe kinds of experimentshe
had carriedout in the black and whitemonotypestenyearsearlier.The negative
has been flippedin two of the printsto effecta left-right reversalsimilar to that
which Degas oftenproducedin the monotypesbypulling counterproofs.14 But in
thesephotographs thereis anotherkind of reversalthatis impossible to achieve
with the monotype medium: they are reverseddark and light, negative and
positive. It is ratheras if Degas had managed to combine, using the unique
flexibilityof the photographicprocess,the two kinds of monotypeshe made, the
so-called light-and dark-field. Using thelight-fieldmanner,the image is made by
drawing with ink on
directly a clean plate; while the methodrequiresa
dark-field
fully inked plate from which the image generated wiping away to expose
is by
areas of light, thus abandoning traditional drawing in favor of chiaroscuro
modeling. Degas did attemptto combine these two modes in single prints,for
example inking and thenwiping away areas ofplates thatweredone essentiallyin
the light-field manner. More curious are thosedark-field monotypesin which the
chiaroscuro modeling is combined with verysharp drawing done by etching
distinctwhite lines into the ink. In the seriesof women readingin bed, probably
done in themid- to late 1880s,thecombinationofwiping (modeling)and etching
(outlining) produces a mysteriousflickerof light thatappears to be both reflected
and generatedby the figures.In relationshipto the reflected light of chiaroscuro
modeling,theprecisewhiteoutline thatdistinguishestheside of a limb thatfalls
into shadow fromthedarknesssurroundingit readsas a rayof light,as ifthatlimb

12. In its sinuous line, let your slenderarm

Gracefullybalance yourglide and yourweight
Degas, Letters,pp. 263-4.
13. Mallarme,SelectedProse, p. 61.
14. This interestin mirror-likereversal is thoroughlyembedded in Degas's black and white
monotypes.We know that Degas oftenworkedon transparentplates in orderto view the image as it
would appear in theprintwhile he was making it. Anotherway of doing this,ofcourse,is byholding
theinkedplate in frontof a mirror.Manyof thebrotheland toilettemonotypesdepictmirrors,someof
which do not reflectanything.For Degas's extraordinaryideas about using the mirrorforseeing the
model fromdifferent positions see the famous passage from The Notebooks of Edgar Degas, ed.
Theodore Reff,Oxford,Clarendon Press, 1976,vol. 1, p. 134.

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A Note on Degas's Photographs 99

wereable to produceitsown illuminationalong itsedge. Degas has thusdestroyed

the logical relationshipbetweenlight and dark in theirfunctionof representing
an object, pointing instead to the absolute conventionalityof the two mutually
exclusive modes of representing.
It is a similardestructionof thelogical relationshipof lightand dark,of the
way which lightis investedwith thepower of constructingintelligibility,that
in
Degas instancesin his photographsof ballerinas.For theoscillation betweenlight
and dark, between positive and negative,operates not only fromone print to
another;it operates,as well, withineach singlephotograph.In theprintin which
the rightarm and torsoof thedancerappear to be normallypositive,theshadow
of the arm on the wall she grasps appears as a streakof light. Her face, also
apparentlyin shadow, and her "dark" hair are registeredas light. At thispoint,
obviously, language begins to fail. How can we any longer speak of light and
dark? How can we speak of a white shadow? a dark highlight?a translucent
shoulder blade? When light and dark, transparencyand opacity, are reversed,
when negative becomes positive and positive, negative, the referentsof our
descriptivelanguage are dissolved. We are leftwith a language germainonly to
thephotographic,in which themanipulationof lightgeneratesitsown, exclusive
logic.
It is not only in those photographs that are so franklymanipulated at the
stage of the negative, however, that Degas forcesrecognition of the internal
functioningof the medium. Among his more straightforward portraitphoto-
graphs is one of his niece Odette that shows her to be a particularlydelightful
sitter.Her bright eyes, wide smile, and spontaneous pose would seem quite
naturally to elicit the termphotogenic. But what exactlydo we mean by that
designation?What can it mean to say thatsomeone is "suitable forreproduction
by light"?
Included among theplates of Fox Talbot's Pencil ofNature is a photogram
of a piece of lace. We are aware that it is a photogramand not a photograph,
however,only because Fox Talbot explains theprocessof making thisprintin an
accompanyingtext.Describingas a "negativeimage" whatwe call a photogram-
that is, a direct imprint of an object on light-sensitivepaper without the
intermediary stage of the negative-he explains:
In taking views of buildings, statues,portraits,8cc.it is necessaryto
obtain a positiveimage, because thenegativeimagesof such objectsare
hardlyintelligible,substitutinglight forshade, and vice versa.But in
copying such things as lace or leaves of plants, a negativeimage is
perfectly allowable, black lace being as familiarto theeyeas whitelace,
and the object being only to exhibit the patternwith accuracy.'5
The negativestageof thephotographicprocesshas been omittedin thisinstance,
then,because thatconversionof light and dark into opacity and transparencyis
15. William HenryFox Talbot, The Pencil of Nature,facsimileedition,New York,Da Capo Press,
1969,n.p.

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Edgar Degas. Odette(niece of the artist).c. 1895.

(Biblioth'que nationale,Paris.)
alreadyaccomplishedin theconstitutionoflace, whichis nothingotherthanpure
pattern.Using the double procedureof photographywould therefore be redun-
dant. In its double natureas presenceand absence,black and white,lace is already
resolvedinto photographiclanguage. It is trulyphotogenic,and, like themirror
in anotherway, it is a perfectmetaphorforphotography.
Now Degas's photographof Odette is repletewith this kind of metaphor,
with its lace backdrop,its patternedwallpaper, its illustratednewspaper.Odette
herselfwears a lace dress. This is a photograph of the photogenic,everything
alreadyresolvedinto black and white.Even Odette'scutesmile is so resolved.She
is at thatage when childrenlose theirbaby teeth,and her smile revealsthegaps
where two of her incisorsare absent. The preponderanceof lace in this photo-
graph is a pun on thatsmile,fortheFrenchwordforlace is dentelle,a diminutive
formof the word dent,meaning tooth. So Odette'ssmile is indeed photogenic;
alreadyreducedto presenceand absence,positiveand negative,black and white,it
is a wrymetaphorforphotography.

Degas made his photographsduringa verybriefperiodof time,forsoon after

thatmoment,in 1895,when Halevy spoke of Degas as "ablaze withenthusiasm"
forhis new occupation with a camera,his eyesightfailed. Unable to pursue his
workany further,Degas remarkedin 1906,"If I could live mylifeagain, I should
do nothingbut black and white."

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