The Vision and Art Project

The French painter Edgar Degas died on September 27, 1917, at the age of eighty-three. Two years later, his private art collection and the contents of his atelier were still being auctioned—and setting records—when one of France’s leading cultural journals published an essay called "Degas and His Model." Written by the pseudonymous Alice Michel, whose true identity remains unknown, it tells about the experience of the artist model “Pauline” posing for Degas in 1910. Translated for the first time into English a few years ago and published by David Zwirner Books, Pauline’s story offers a fascinating window into Degas’s studio and working practices late in his life, when he was nearly blind. Read more at https://visionandartproject.org/book-reviews/degas-and-his-model-an-eyewitness-account-of-degass-studio-practices-late-his-life-when-he-was-blind-and-a-sometimes-unflattering-portrait-of-the-aging-artist/