How Edgar Degas revealed Paris opera’s magic and murkiness – without actually being there

‘Degas at the Opéra’, an exhibition showing at the Musée d’Orsay in Paris, shows the French artist as a fabulist, his art coming from the imagination

Casting off false notions about Degas frees us to perceive the Paris Opéra’s significance to him

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Renowned French artist Edgar Degas’ ‘The Ballet Class’ from the ‘Degas at the Opéra’ exhibition, at the Musée d’Orsay in Paris, France. Photo: Alamy

Published: 5:00am, 10 Nov 2019Updated: 5:00am, 10 Nov 2019

Fake news and truth, the terms we hear so much about lately, are supposed to be mutually exclusive. Truth is obdurate and aloof. Fake is fake: it’s a sham. Simpering and obscene, it demeans everyone it touches.

We want – we need – the distinction to be clear-cut, since so much rides on it. But in the realm of art, things are more complicated. Take Edgar Degas, for example, whose work is now the subject of a sprawling, stupendous show, “Degas at the Opéra”, at the Musée d’Orsay in Paris.

Degas is supposed to have been on the side of truth. But truth in art and truth in public life are very different things. And we get Degas badly wrong if we mistake him for a documentarian.

The standard Degas narrative is that he dispensed with the stale repertoire of religious, mythological and historical subjects and turned his gaze instead to contemporary life: Paris’ racetrack, cafe concerts, milliners’ shops, brothels and ballet classes. Everyone knows, too, that Degas helped form the Impressionist group – and what was Impressionism about if not showing the world as it is?

‘Dancer On the Stage L’etoile’ (circa 1878), by Degas. Photo: Alamy

That story is fine as far as it goes. But neat stories – especially those involving sunlight and poppy fields – do not really adhere to Degas. He was an indoor creature, slightly vampiric, ferociously independent. (“If I were the government,” he once said, “I would have a special brigade of gendarmes to keep an eye on artists who paint landscapes from nature. Oh, I don’t mean to kill anyone; just a little dose of birdshot now and then as a warning.” And you want to call this guy an Impressionist?)