Saturday, July 19, 2008

Together at last ...

... Edgar Degas and Philip Levine.

Many years ago - I may still have been in college - I went to an exhibition of Degas's work at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. I seem to recall it was an exhibition of his pastels. At any rate, what I most remember from it is a portrait of a woman sitting in one of those overstuffed 19-century chairs. Another woman is leaning over whispering something to the woman who is seated. What held my attention was the sense of implied drama the look on the seated woman's face conveyed. What had she just been told? It seemed to me that Degas had captured perfectly the face of psychological distress, a wrenching mix of anger and heartbreak.

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