Public Favorites (No. 3)

Public Favorites (No. 3) Edgar Degas' 19th Century studies of ballet dancers have won him lasting fame and popularity; his Examen de Danse is the public's favorite painting at the Denver Art Museum. Housed in a onetime factory, Denver's museum uses street show windows to lure the public, and features contemporary American art along with such European masterpieces as this magnificently drawn pastel.

Degas once exhibited with the impressionists out of deference to his friend Manet, but he hated being called an impressionist. Actually he stands alone in the history of French art, an austere, bitter-tongued man who refused to paint outdoors because he did not want to catch cold. Degas was an expert on the human figure, which he handled as objectively as a chair. He was not sentimental about ballet, described his dancer-models as "little rats." One of the "rats" once remarked that "when you work for Degas you feel every bone in your body." Anyone who looks long at his work can feel the bones, too.

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