Degas and the Dancer

In this new dramatic title from the award winning Artists' Specials series, viewers meet Impressionist painter Edgar Degas, a struggling and penniless artist who takes a job as an illustrator, begrudgingly agreeing to sketch "opera rats" (ballet dancers) to make ends meet. While observing a group of dancers, Degas meets a somewhat awkward young girl named Marie, who becomes his model. Inspired, he begins work on what will become the highly celebrated piece "Ballet Rehearsal" and the beautiful sculpture in wax entitled "Young Dancer Fourteen Years Old." Both Degas and Marie become friends, each inspiring the other to persevere during personal crisis and to hold on to their respective dreams. Subtly woven into the story is the friction between independent artists and the conservative Parisian art establishment that gave birth to the Impressionist movement. As in the equally excellent Composer's Specials and Inventors Specials (see review of Einstein: Light to the Power of 2 in VL-3/99) series, the approach of building a semi-fictionalized story around the genesis of great art, music, or scientific discoveries, contributes not only to an appreciation of these bodies of work and their creators, but also helps to bring history alive. Highly recommended. The other titles in the series are: Claude Monet: Shadow and Light, Francisco De Goya: Awakened in a Dream, Mary Cassatt: American Impressionist, Rembrandt: Fathers and Sons and Winslow Homer: An American Original. Aud: I, J, P. (N. Plympton)